First Republic Bank Corporation

This article is about the defunct bank based in Dallas, Texas. For the bank based in San Francisco, California, see First Republic Bank.

First RepublicBank Corporation was a bank that failed in 1988, during the savings and loan crisis. The company first opened as the Guaranty Bank and Trust Company in 1920, founded by a University of Texas law school alumnus named Eugene DeBogory. In 1922 when Guaranty obtained a national charter it assumed the name Republic National Bank of Dallas. When the company began servicing farm and ranch loans, it was required to establish a Texas subsidiary, Republic Trust and Savings Bank, to comply with regulations governing national banks at the time. In 1928 the regulations changed, allowing the state-chartered Republic Trust and Savings Bank to be merged back into the parent company, forming the Republic National Bank and Trust Company.

During the next decade Republic acquired North Texas National Bank, and invested in several other Texas banks during the banking crisis of the 1933. In 1938 the name changed again back to Republic National Bank of Dallas. By 1948 Republic had grown to become the largest bank in Texas. In the 1980s, toward the tail end of a lengthy period of expansion and acquisition, Republic acquired the Houston National Bank and held a substantial portfolio of loans to the real estate industry in Texas.

In the late 1980s Savings and Loan crisis, Texas in general and Republic's loan portfolio in particular was hit hard by real estate devaluation. In efforts to remain solvent RepublicBank Corporation in 1987 merged with InterFirst Bank Corporation, also based in Dallas, resulting in the First RepublicBank Corporation. The combined First RepublicBank was unable to weather the downturn and was shuttered within a year, in what was at the time the largest bank failure in US history. In 1988 NCNB Corporation acquired First RepublicBank from the FDIC, and in 1991 changed its name to NationsBank.