Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. sells itself as a pillar of Texan integrity – a homegrown success story with local roots and neighbourly charm. But strip off the branding gloss and what’s left is a profiteer in a pressed shirt, trading on trust while cutting corners, gouging customers, and quietly bankrolling pollution. They like to call it community banking. Everyone else can call it what it is: greed dressed up in manners.

Cashing in on Cummins’ Carbon

Cullen/Frost’s idea of responsible investing includes a multimillion-dollar stake in Cummins, the diesel darling caught red-handed cheating emissions tests. Cummins paid out $1.6 billion+ in 2024 after regulators found defeat devices rigging engines to pass lab tests while spewing filth on the road. Frost still thought it was a solid bet. As of mid-2025, they held about 70 000 Cummins shares worth roughly $17 million. Not passive, not accidental – a deliberate choice to side with pollution.

They boast of values and stewardship, but they’re literally financing the company that choked American air for profit. It’s corporate loyalty to poison, pure and simple.

Overdraft Games: Profit from Poverty

Through Frost Bank, the group has hammered working people with overdraft fees that make payday lenders blush. In 2024, customers sued, saying Frost charged them for overdrafts that didn’t exist. It was all hidden behind small print and “system policy”. The class action was forced into private arbitration – banker code for “bury it quietly”.

Frost dropped some fees in 2022, but only after pocketing years of penalties from people living paycheque to paycheque. It’s not an error. It’s a business model.

Data Breach: Security on the Cheap

In 2018, a third-party lockbox leak exposed cheque images from nearly 500 commercial customers. Frost said no harm done. The FBI disagreed. Leaving financial data sitting in the open isn’t bad luck – it’s negligence. Their “no loss reported” defence is like claiming credit for not being robbed after leaving your front door open.

For a bank managing billions, this was amateur hour, and it shows how lightly they treat the people who trust them with their money.

Inside the Ranks: Whistleblowers and Wage Theft

In 2025, ex-executive Chad Jones sued Frost for unpaid overtime, retaliation, and defamation. He claimed seventy-hour weeks, ignored warnings about dodgy cashier’s checks, and a smear campaign once he spoke up. The case painted a picture of a workplace where silence is safer than integrity.

Another suit came from a pastor-turned-employee who said he faced retaliation too. Same pattern: talk back, get burned. For a firm that brands itself “family”, they sure eat their own.

The Pandemic Payday: Picking Favourites

During the COVID relief rush, Frost was accused of funnelling Paycheck Protection loans to existing clients while freezing out small firms without accounts. That’s not community service – it’s corporate triage. When the country was on its knees, they looked out for themselves first.

Every banker speech about “standing together” rings hollow when you remember who they actually stood with.

Red Flags Ignored

Frost also surfaced in the Chris Pettit fraud scandal, accused of ignoring suspicious transfers tied to the disgraced attorney’s Ponzi scheme. The suits were dismissed, but the pattern matters. When millions move strangely through a system and no one blinks, that’s not compliance – it’s complicity.

The Picture That Emerges

Look at it all together and the story writes itself. A bank that preaches ethics while backing polluters. A community lender that squeezes the broke. A financial fortress that can’t even keep its customers’ data safe.

They’re not cartoon villains. They’re worse – respectable. The kind who smile at ribbon-cuttings while counting fees from people drowning in debt. Cullen/Frost is proof that corruption doesn’t always wear a mask. Sometimes it just wears a tie.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

Shareholder Spotlight : Cullen/Frost – Preaching Values, Investing in Poison