00:00Talk to me about why you did this. I mean, you could have done a dual listing, kept your NASDAQ
00:03listing, got a listing on the taxi, but you decided just go whole hog, go down there. Why?
00:07Well, it's pretty simple. People like to think that it's for romantic reasons, like we took the ticker home. That
00:13had nothing to do with it.
00:15Once this exchange came to fruition, it was our responsibility to look at the three exchanges and pick the best
00:21one for Texas capital.
00:23And so that's what we did. Number one, the new exchange has a very good management team that's done it
00:29at the most significant firms in the world.
00:33They have a match trading technology that is state of the art.
00:39Their investor base is incredible. Some of the best, smartest investors of the world that affirms their strategy, their technology,
00:47et cetera.
00:49And then another reason, just to get right down to it, the net present value is better.
00:55So they have a share listing construct. And so on this exchange, instead of just paying a fee, we pay
01:02a fee.
01:03But at the end of the day, we have a net cash position from the exchange.
01:09And so it's a shared listing and a partnership. And so it's more profitable for us.
01:14And we don't lose anything by leaving. We just gain.
01:16Well, give me a sense here, too. I mean, how much momentum are we seeing here?
01:20Because I mentioned the other companies. I think it's four or five now that have said that.
01:24But they all have some affiliation with taxi. And you yourself have an affiliation with the governing structure there.
01:30Is this just sort of the people who have a vested interest in seeing taxi succeed are now a part
01:35of this?
01:35Are we going to just see other people, people who have no affiliation with this, also sort of look to
01:40taxi and say there's opportunity here?
01:42Well, people say that about Kelsey. But, I mean, what an incredible innovator he is.
01:47I mean, he's created hundreds of thousands of jobs. He's helped make the country safer with national defense and independence
01:54of energy.
01:55And he saw this as another investment, as something we needed.
01:59So I view that as a real positive. And our investment at taxi is so minor.
02:05It means nothing. The people that made that decision didn't make the decision to move.
02:08It was the board and me that made the decision to move. So it's a totally independent decision.
02:13And, by the way, it would be wrong as CEO and chairman to make that decision for any other reason.
02:18I think you'll see many companies follow. There's a lot of interest.
02:23We just happen to be first. But there's a lot of interest.
02:25What was the main concern that you had to allay from whether you're C-suite or investors regarding your move
02:30to the Texas Exchange?
02:32I'm sure there were some.
02:33Well, look, you've got to make sure the technology is good.
02:38You've got to make sure cyber is safe.
02:42So you've got to make sure it's good. You've got to make sure it's safe.
02:44You've got to make sure that it can perform.
02:47They've been trading over 13,000 symbols since mid-summer without any hitch at all.
02:51So there's really actually no concern.
02:54Some people will bring up liquidity.
02:56They think the exchange provides liquidity.
02:58Well, in reality, your symbol trades—there's 20 exchanges they can trade on during the day, 200 venues.
03:05No exchange provides liquidity.
03:07They don't have that much liquidity.
03:09They're investing their capital in other things.
03:11So the symbols, the issuers, provide liquidity to the exchanges.
03:16And so the things that were thrown at us as negatives were all false.
03:21We only see the positives, and we move forward.
03:24Can I just ask you, too, just about your business itself?
03:27I mean, Texas Capital, the shares aren't far from some of the recent highs here.
03:32I think you've instituted a dividend.
03:34This was a much different company a few years back, a company I think a lot of people had left
03:38for dead.
03:39And you guys came out with what at the time seemed like a pretty radical plan.
03:43And there were a lot of people that said there was no way you were going to pull this off.
03:46What transpired over these last five and a half years or so?
03:50What is the difference between the Texas capital of today and the Texas capital of 2020, 2021?
03:56Well, we wouldn't have tried it anywhere else.
03:58It is the most dynamic economy in the world.
04:01And you're able to attract talent from anywhere on the globe, which is really the thing that changed it.
04:10So what's the difference?
04:11We have a lot of capital.
04:13We have a lot of liquidity.
04:15We have the product suite.
04:17We can do anything a money center bank can do today.
04:20We're the number one lender to Texas business of any Texas-based bank.
04:23We're growing treasury fees way faster than the market, investment banking fees faster, wealth fees faster.
04:30And we're doing it in a very responsible way.
04:33We opened the first institutional sales and trading floor in Texas in 50 years.
04:37We have great distribution.
04:39And we have an employee base that's totally dedicated.
04:42They came here for a shared vision and realized it through client selection.
04:46this? What are
04:46social a shady decision? Yeah.
04:47Hmm.
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