It wasn’t that long ago that students graduating with financial degrees in Fort Worth knew they would likely have to go out-of-state at least at some point in their careers.
Brandon Bledsoe, now Fort Worth market president at Amegy Bank, remembers.
The Fort Worth native graduated in the mid-1980s from the University of Texas at Austin. He knew, like many others with degrees in business and finance, that finding work in his hometown would be difficult.
“You went to Dallas or maybe go to work for one of the big banks for Houston or maybe go further east,” he said. “Back then, you left the nest a lot of times.”
Now, as he and many other local business leaders see, Texas is no longer on the periphery in financial services. In many cases, North Texas has become the center of it, they say.
That shift has been occurring for some time with Charles Schwab and others setting roots down in the region, but it came to the forefront with last year’s announcements of stock exchanges planting their flags here as well.
Dubbed colloquially as Y’all Street, the Texas Stock Exchange was announced in 2025 and first out of the gate with a homegrown capital market backed by major institutional investors including BlackRock, Citadel Securities, Charles Schwab and JPMorgan Chase.
The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq quickly followed suit by bolstering their Texas operations, all looking to tap into the state’s growing strength as an economic powerhouse, said Steve Cotton, president of Cotton Wealth Management Associates in Dallas.
“The new Texas stock exchanges are going to attract even more companies to move here,” he said. “The state is already attracting companies here because of our lower cost of living, no state income tax and low regulation.”
Texas basically hung out the welcome sign to businesses, and this will give them one more reason to move here, Cotton said.
As these exchanges take shape, don’t expect to see a trading floor with a flurry of ticker-tape. They will be technology-based with nary a trading floor in sight.
These new exchanges also promise lower listing and compliance costs, easier capital access for Texas businesses and new opportunities for local and retail investors, according to the Texas Economic Development Organization.
Providing easier access to capital is one key component for Edward Crawford, co-CEO of Fort Worth and Dallas-based Coltala Holdings. Crawford was recently named to the NYSE Texas Advisory Board.
“What’s happened is the going-public journey has been stretched from three to four years to eight years,” he said. “It’s more complicated, more expensive, so it’s about lowering the barriers. You shouldn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to go public. That’s a big reason I’m interested in this.”
While New York City remains the largest market for financial services employment overall, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is ranked second, according to some surveys. Dallas and Collin counties are home to many of the local jobs.
However, Fort Worth and Tarrant County can tout major employers including Charles Schwab, Deloitte and GM Financial and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, which recently announced that its AllianceTexas location is now that organization’s U,S. headquarters.
“The DFW region’s economy is now the 24th largest in the world, with a GDP exceeding $638 billion,” said Robert Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership. “Fort Worth is contributing to that momentum, adding more than 11,000 jobs over the past three years across a wide range of industries.”
Carlos Munguia, president and CEO of Amegy Bank for the Dallas-Fort Worth region, says that along with the state’s lower cost of doing business, higher education has played a role in attracting financial services to the area.
“When Gov. Greg Abbott came into his job in 2015, there were four Tier 1 schools in the state,” he said. “Now there’s 16. There’s a strong labor and talent pipeline here, and these companies know that. They’re planning to be here for a long time.”
None of the exchanges have been shy about tapping into the state’s mythic qualities to provide a bit of Texas-sized bluster.
The NYSE Texas launched at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, and Nasdaq Texas began its full operational launch at the Alamo, also commemorating the 190th anniversary of that iconic battle.
Cotton sees that as fine, but worries that the Texas exchanges might lose sight of their mission and become the playground of the rich and richer.
“They’ve done a good job attracting capital, but small business needs a voice in this too or it won’t be as impactful,” he said. “I’m saying this as a conservative Republican, but that concerns me.”
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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