Fourth Financial Corporation was a Wichita, Kansas bank holding company that was the largest and one of the oldest banks in Kansas as well as a dominant bank in Oklahoma when it was bought by Boatmen's Bancshares for $1.2 billion in stock in 1995.
Fourth National Bank of Wichita was founded by George C. Strong in 1887.
It became Fourth Financial in 1968. In 1982 it began an aggressive expansion after state banking laws were relaxed allowing it to buy interest in other banks. It bought the maximum shares in five cities of more than 10,000 near colleges. In the strategy it became the biggest bank in the state in 1986 when it was allowed to totally take over its banks. It renamed its banksâ€"Bank IV.
Between 1985 and 1990 the bank under Jordan L. Haines and Ron Baldwin bought 24 banksâ€"one every 75 days topping off at one a month when it began acquiring troubled Savings and loan associations during the Savings and Loan Crisis in 1990. Among the S&L's purchased was Anchor Savings.
In 1990 just as it was approaching the limits it could control in Kansas, legislation permitted it to expand to other states and it began acquiring banks in Oklahoma under the Bank IV Oklahoma subsidiary.
Boatmens acquired it in 1995. At the time it had $8 billion in assets and offices in 80 locations.
References
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