First Westroads Bank

First Westroads Bank was chartered in 1967 in Omaha, Nebraska as an independent, suburban, commercial bank with a state license. The bank was to occupy space in the newly developed Westroads Shopping Center on the then-westend of the city. The bank was chartered by the families controlling First National Bank of Omaha and ownership interest rested with the children of the Lauritzen and Davis families.

History

The Bank first opened in a trailer but moved to its indoor mall space in the spring of 1968. In addition to that home office, the bank also built a drive-thru facility in the south parking lot of the mall which was connected by a tunnel and tube carrier system and controlled remotely by closed-circuit television. The remote television system had many operational flaws and it was converted to a manual facility in 1972.

During its early years, the bank struggled, having the overhead of a larger organization with the additional expense of being located in a major super-regional shopping center with expanded hours. Also, due to the saturated market, market share was very difficult to develop, despite the boom in the area’s consumer and commercial growth. During the first nine years, the bank saw eight chief executive officers. However, beginning in the late 1970’s, the bank saw growth and assets rise that was by and large better than its peer group.

In late 1974, First Westroads Bank was sold to a group representing the National Bank of Commerce of Lincoln, Nebraska. The bank desired to expand into the Omaha market through an affiliation system. In that system, the acquired bank would become a publicly held entity and ownership would be offered to existing National Bank of Commerce shareholders on a pro-rata basis.

However, for a variety of reasons, that did not happen for First Westroads Bank. Instead the bank was sold in 1979 to United Bancshares of Nebraska, Inc., a one-bank holding company whose shareholders were formerly National Bank of Commerce participants. This group operated the holding company until 1985 when the makeup of the shareholders shifted to five shareholders, all of whom were Omaha residents. In 1990, the shareholders were approached by a representative of Ameriwest, a holding company is currently owned by Chris and Betsy, who ultimately negotiated the purchase of the bank for Murphy.

References

* [http://www.fwbk.com First Westroads Bank]

ee also

* Economics of Omaha