South Plains Financial, the Lubbock-based parent of City Bank, has officially closed its all-stock acquisition of Bank of Houston, folding the Houston lender into City Bank and planting a much bigger flag in the Houston market. The deal pulls roughly two dozen Bank of Houston branches into the City Bank network and marks a major step in South Plains’ push into the state’s largest metro. Bank of Houston CEO James D. (Jim) Stein is joining South Plains and will keep leading the Houston team under the new structure.
Merger became effective after regulator sign-offs
The transaction became effective on Wednesday, according to a Form 8-K on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, after the companies secured approvals and non-objections from the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Texas Department of Banking. The filing notes that BOH Holdings was merged into South Plains and that Bank of Houston was merged into City Bank, leaving South Plains as the holding company and City Bank as the surviving bank.
Pro forma balance sheet and branches
On a pro forma basis, South Plains has said the combined franchise will operate about 26 branches with roughly $5.4 billion in assets, $3.8 billion in loans and $4.6 billion in deposits, figures the company disclosed when the deal was first announced. South Plains Financial has framed the purchase as a scale play in the fast-growing Houston metro and a way to broaden City Bank’s product lineup for local customers.
Leadership and local operations
Under terms described in the proxy and registration materials, Jim Stein, Bank of Houston’s chairman and CEO, will join the boards of South Plains and City Bank and will serve as Houston Market President — BOH under an employment agreement that guarantees at least two years of service and an annual base salary of not less than $350,000, plus performance-based pay and allowances. Those details are laid out in proxy materials filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which also outline non-compete provisions, equity treatment and severance protections tied to the integration.
Why Houston matters
The acquisition gives City Bank a deeper footprint in Harris County and, by South Plains’ estimate, pushes the combined company into the upper tier of Texas-headquartered banks by Houston-area deposits. Industry observers have cast the deal as a relatively low-risk way for a West Texas bank to buy instant scale in the state’s largest city at a time when community banks keep consolidating, according to coverage from American Banker and the Houston Business Journal.
Customer timeline and staffing
Merger documents call for a core-system conversion in early May, with data migration targeted around May 8, when Bank of Houston accounts are slated to move onto City Bank systems. The proxy notes that BOH had about 51 full-time employees at year-end 2025 and spells out minimum severance and other protections for staff who are not retained through the transition. An amended Form S-4 and related documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission detail how warrants, restricted stock and other awards will be handled.
For Houston customers, the near-term impact is largely cosmetic and convenience-driven: new signage at branches and access to a wider menu of City Bank products. For South Plains, it is a calculated bet that bulking up in Houston will pay off in the form of loan growth. Expect a steady stream of customer notices and in-branch updates as systems are fully synced and the combined franchise settles into its new look.
