On January 25, 1912 the doors opened for the first bank in the new town of Ralls under the name of W.E. McLaughlin, Banker, Unincorporated, with a capitalization of $11,000. It was an unincorporated private bank.
In 1914 McLaughlin opened another bank with the same name in Lorenzo. McLaughlin put up the capital, but his sons ran the banks under his supervision. They installed cutting-edge technology – a private telephone connection between the banks. When World War I broke out and one son went off to war McLaughlin sold the Lorenzo bank.
In 1918, there was a banking panic in the United States. W.E. McLaughlin, Banker was especially vulnerable as an unincorporated private bank. To prevent a run on his bank, McLaughlin obtained a state bank charter and joined the newly created Texas Guaranty Fund (a precursor to the FDIC) and thus W.E. McLaughlin, Banker, became Guaranty State Bank in Ralls and irrevocably subject to government regulation and examination.
By 1921 the onerous assessments of the Guaranty Fund had become a drain on the bank’s resources so McLaughlin took the bank out of the fund and changed the name to Security State Bank & Trust Co. In 1933 another bank panic occurred. President Roosevelt ordered all banks in the United States to be closed and examined. After 100 days the banks which were found to be solvent were allowed to re-open – with new FDIC deposit insurance to calm public fears. McLaughlin’s bank was one of the few in West Texas that was allowed to re-open. The rest were either reorganized by new owners with new capital or closed and liquidated.
In 2008 the McLaughlin family decided to expand the bank outside of agricultural lending, and to begin with two new branches in Lubbock. A new name, Vista Bank, was chosen to facilitate marketing a new and appropriate brand and image. In 2009 two new branches in Lubbock were opened, resulting in a total of 10 branches.
In April of 2015, Vista Bank entered the Dallas market. With an established and ever growing client base in the area, Vista Bank opened a Loan Production Office in downtown Dallas to better serve their commercial clients.
Less than three years later, in March of 2018, Vista opened a drive-thru location on Preston Road to accommodate clients' banking needs and officially relocated the company’s headquarters to a new Banking Center at the Tollway and Northwest Highway.
Vista Bank expanded into the thriving Fort Worth market in February of 2016 by opening a Loan Production Office in the center of Fort Worth.
May, 2017. With an ever growing client base, Vista Bank expanded into the thriving Austin market by opening a full service Banking Center.
January, 2021. With Haskell’s steady growth, Vista expanded East into the Big Country opening a new Banking Center.
