{"id":454335,"date":"2026-10-02T14:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454335\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T14:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T14:38:08","slug":"saul-ortega-declares-texas-national-bank-is-the-valleys-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454335\/","title":{"rendered":"Saul Ortega Declares Texas National Bank Is the Valley\u2019s Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Saul<\/a>Saul Ortega. Photo by Texas Border Business (TBB)<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

By Roberto Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

McALLEN, Texas \u2014 Texas National Bank CEO Saul Ortega used the opening of the bank\u2019s new McAllen headquarters on Oct. 1, 2026, to trace a story spanning generations, from his father\u2019s arrival in South Texas to the institution Ortega now describes as firmly rooted in the Rio Grande Valley.<\/p>\n

Ortega told guests that his father, Jos\u00e9 Platon Ortega,\u00a0was born in Nuevo Le\u00f3n, Mexico, in 1902, came to the United States in 1920, and eventually settled in Mercedes, Texas. He worked as a farmworker and later purchased land and became a farmer, Ortega said.<\/p>\n

As a child, Ortega accompanied his father to the bank in Mercedes. He recalled that employees knew his father and that the experience helped shape his decision to enter banking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I decided what I wanted to do,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cI wanted to be a banker, and I wanted to be a lender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortega said he began his banking career 43 years ago as a part-time teller at Texas Commerce Bank. He became involved with Texas National Bank in 2008, when, according to his remarks, the institution had about $60 million in total assets and a few million dollars in capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we\u2019re a $1.4 billion bank,\u201d Ortega said.<\/p>\n

Ortega dedicated the new headquarters to his parents and spent part of his remarks recognizing his wife, daughters, grandchildren, board members, employees, friends, and others who supported him and the institution.<\/p>\n

He also spoke about the sacrifices his daughters experienced as the family pursued its business goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re the ones who went through this ride with me,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cMy daughters made a lot of sacrifices along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortega said the bank\u2019s priorities now include efforts beyond its banking operations. He discussed work to build homes for people who might otherwise have difficulty obtaining one and described the bank foundation\u2019s scholarship activities. He said 28 scholarships have been awarded and described a goal of generating about $1 million annually to provide approximately 50 scholarships.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Joe Quiroga. Photo by TBB<\/p>\n

The remarks followed comments from Texas National Bank President Joe Quiroga, who focused on the people who helped the institution develop from its earlier years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t believe in the bank, you believed in the individuals behind the bank,\u201d Quiroga told longtime customers who supported the institution in its early stages. \u201cAnd I know for a fact that you all just trusted us and trusted that this would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortega closed his remarks by describing the culture he wants the institution to maintain as it grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be friendly, we want to be kind, and we want to be family,\u201d Ortega said.<\/p>\n

He then delivered his strongest statement about the bank\u2019s geographic identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexas National Bank, we are McAllen, Texas, we are the Rio Grande Valley, and we are South Texas,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cMake no mistake. We are the Valley\u2019s bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

See related stories:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saul Ortega. Photo by Texas Border Business (TBB) Texas Border Business By Roberto Hugo Gonz\u00e1lez \/ Texas Border…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132442,1472,156034,1474,27,81353,29,156021,28],"class_list":["post-454335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-mcallen-texas","tag-rio-grande-valley","tag-saul-ortega","tag-south-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-border-business","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-national-bank","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}