Our History

First American Bank, formerly The First National Bank of Artesia has a long and rich history as an independent community bank. The following information was found in a file in our vault and was most likely compiled by a board secretary, detailing the earliest years of the bank’s history.

“The First National Bank of Artesia is older than the city itself, having been issued its charter on November 24, 1903. At that time New Mexico was still a territory; becoming a State in 1912. The population at that time was about 1,000 persons.

No buildings were available when the bank received its charter, and the bank was unable to open for business until the following year. The construction at 305 W. Main Street – the first brick building to be to be built in Artesia – started on October 24, 1903, when the first load of building stone arrived from a quarry near Roswell. The First National Bank officially opened its doors to the community on February 2, 1904.

The capital of the newly formed bank was $25,000 consisting of 250 shares worth $100 each. Almost half of the stock was subscribed by Artesia interests. At the close of business on the first day deposits totaled $6,127.59. 

In 1931 The First National Bank and the old Citizen’s State Bank, which was chartered in 1919, merged to form one banking institution. The consolidated bank retained the name of The First National Bank, but moved to the location of the Citizen’s State Bank which was then located in the building at 301 W. Main Street.

The First National Bank was an integral part of Artesia and its citizens. Over the next 50 years deposits grew from $96,492.69 on January 11, 1905, to $10,545,981.08 on June 30, 1955.”

To keep up with the growing community in which we were founded, we introduced motor banking in 1959, began offering Trust Services in 1963 and in 1981 the bank underwent a major remodel, and a second story was added!

On February 25, 1994, the headline of the Artesia Daily Press stated a man robbed First National Bank. Luckily, he turned himself in three days later. Around that time, the bank made headlines again in the local paper by, “offering a new payment alternative,” their first Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).

The First National Bank of Artesia had valuable experience and expertise in oil and gas, so to better serve our customers outside of Artesia in 1996 we opened our second location in Hobbs, New Mexico. The success of the Hobbs market was the beginning of our state-wide expansion.

When we celebrated our 100-year anniversary we had opened branches in Roswell and Las Cruces. By 2008, we had local branches in the communities of Alamogordo, Lovington, a second location in Rowell and a state-of the-art Data Center to accommodate our customer’s need for advanced growing technology.

In 2009, although our name, The First National Bank of Artesia served us well for over 106 years, it did not reflect our expansion into other communities and our commitment to each local economy. We knew our customers throughout New Mexico deserved the value and service that we, as a premier independent community bank, could only provide. In January of that year, we changed our name to First American Bank. 

Over the next decade we reached one billion dollars and are now nearing two billion. We have twenty-two locations in fourteen communities in two states – New Mexico and Texas and we are continuing to grow by offering new products, services, technology and fraud protection all while honoring our humble beginnings as one of the first banks in the state of New Mexico.

We celebrated our 120th anniversary in 2023, a milestone few other companies in our country will reach. We thank you for your loyalty, dedication and commitment from our employees, board of directors, shareholders and mostly our customers who have traveled on journey with us.

To learn more about building a relationship with First American Bank.