Regulators, Suspecting Fraud, Close Tiny Texas Lender in Year’s Second U.S. Bank Failure

Regulators, Suspecting Fraud, Close Tiny Texas Lender in Year’s Second U.S. Bank Failure© KAREN BLEIER/AFP via Getty Images

Late Friday, a federal U.S. bank regulator said it shuttered the Santa Anna National Bank, a very small lender that served as the only bank for Santa Anna, Texas, in the country’s second bank failure of 2025.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said it closed the lender after finding “the bank had experienced substantial dissipation of assets and earnings due to unsafe or unsound practices.”

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was appointed as receiver to help recover customers’ assets, said in a separate statement on Friday that “suspected fraud contributed to the failure of the bank.” It’s the first bank failure in Texas since 2019.

A small, nearby lender, Coleman County State Bank, will absorb the failed bank’s insured deposits and some of its assets. The Santa Anna National Bank had one location and $64 million of assets in mid-June.

Representatives for Santa Anna National Bank couldn’t be reached for comment. A phone number for the bank listed on the OCC’s website prompted an automated message that said the bank had been closed and directed callers to the FDIC.

The 92-year-old bank “was in an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business” and held fewer assets than its obligations to creditors, the OCC said. Lenders’ assets must exceed its liabilities in order to function.

Bank collapses are rare. In 2024, two banks—Republic First Bank of Philadelphia and the First National Bank of Lindsay, in Oklahoma—failed. In 2023 there were five bank failures, including the dramatic closures of First Republic, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank during the regional banking crisis that spring.

Chicago-based Pulaski Savings Bank’s failure in January was the first U.S. bank failure of 2025. The FDIC’s Office of Inspector General found that Pulaski Savings Bank failed because it had become “critically undercapitalized” and had some $21 million of deposit liabilities unaccounted for in its core system.

The Texas Bankers Association, a trade group for the state’s large and community lenders, didn’t respond to a comment request about Santa Anna late Friday. The bank was run by Chief Executive Scott Morelock and President Robert Cheaney, two longtime leaders, according to archived images of Santa Anna National Bank’s website.

The town of Santa Anna has some 1,000 residents. A local news website reported that John Morris, the town’s mayor, said Friday was a “somber day for the citizens of Santa Anna as the Santa Anna National Bank, established in 1933, has reached the end of an era.”

Write to Rebecca Ungarino at rebecca.ungarino@barrons.com