Frost Bank's South Lamar Financial Center opened Sept. 28 in South Austin. (Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
Frost Bank opened its newest Austin-area location Sept. 28 on South Lamar Boulevard in South Austin.
The details
The South Lamar Financial Center serves both business and consumer customers, according to a Frost news release. Its lobby is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Customers can use a greeter station to make deposits and withdrawals, get help with account questions, open accounts or apply for loans.
The branch's Smart ATM accepts cash and check deposits without envelopes or deposit slips and is available during lobby hours.(Jessica McLaren/Community Impact)
The branch is located in a portion of the space formerly occupied by Half Price Books, which closed in March, as previously reported by Community Impact. The other half of the building will house CorePower Yoga, which is projected to open this fall, Studio Manager Ash Lickert said in a June 23 Instagram post.
Zooming out
The South Lamar location is part of a strategy Frost launched in 2018 to open branches in communities it didn't have a presence and weren't adequately served by other banks, Bill Day, senior vice president of corporate communications at Frost, told Community Impact.
"You may remember that at that time, a lot of banks were focused on serving customers via technology instead of in person and were shutting branch locations down; Frost went against the trend," he said.
Many banks are expanding in Texas by acquiring existing banks and merging them into their operations. Frost instead prefers to choose its own locations, design its own financial centers and hire its own employees, Day said.
"More banks are opening branches today, but our 'organic' growth is still ahead of the curve," he said.
Frost has grown from about 130 locations in 2018 to 211 statewide, including 29 in the Austin region and "more financial centers are on the way," he said. The bank announced its Austin expansion in 2023.
"We're really excited to be here and serve the community," said Blake Leffingwell, a private banking officer at the new South Lamar Financial Center. "Not a lot of banks are here in 78704."
Founded in 1868, Frost is a subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc., which reported $53.9 billion in assets as of June 30, according to the institution's website.
What's next
Frost plans to hold ribbon-cutting celebrations at a later, unannounced date, per the release.
