I’ll start with a phrase that normally gives me shivers when uttered at my house: Let’s talk about banking matters. No need to grab your wallet or hide under the bed, though. Instead, there are a couple of deals to note and a new report on the Lawrence market to review.

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First, there is a new entrant into the Douglas County banking scene. The Farmers State Bank of Oakley is not letting the geography of its name or its western Kansas roots stop it from expanding into Douglas County.

The bank last month completed a purchase of Eudora’s Kaw Valley State Bank. Eudora is a long ways from Oakley — an approximately 2,000-person town about 25 miles south and east of Colby — but that was part of the bank’s strategy.

Matt Engel, president and CEO of the bank, told me Farmers State Bank has a strong business in agricultural lending in western Kansas, and also has been expanding with commercial lending where it can. However, he said the bank definitely saw a need to get into an area of the state that has stronger population growth.

“It is a wonderful growing market in that part of the state,” Engel said of the decision to come to Eudora. “Western Kansas is not such a growing market.”

Engel said he became familiar with the Lawrence area — and by extension Eudora — through frequent visits to see his two children who attend KU.

As for how the bank landed on the Eudora market, Engel said it became clear that Kaw Valley State Bank was very similar to the type of bank he’s used to operating.

“Their bank there just fit us perfectly,” Engel said. “It is similar to us in Oakley that we’re both very community oriented.”

Kaw Valley State Bank has long been a single bank location, with its offices in downtown Eudora. It was owned by the Hoover family, who has had a long history in banking, first in Lawrence and then for many decades in Eudora.

As part of the sale, bank executive Henry Sloan has moved to the community to serve as regional president for the bank, Engel said. The “regional” part of the title isn’t just window dressing, Engel said.

“We definitely will expand whenever there is a good opportunity,” Engel said. “We look for good, high quality customers, and it doesn’t really matter where they are at.”

Engel said the bank plans to be an active commercial lender in the Lawrence market, and already has begun to work on some of those deals.

He said the bank also will do mortgage and agricultural lending out of the Eudora location.

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While not a new entrant to the market, one Lawrence bank may soon have a new location in west Lawrence.

Silver Lake Bank has filed for a building permit to remodel a former bank location at Sixth Street and Folks Road. The permit application calls for about $45,000 worth of remodeling work at the former Capitol Federal Savings location at 4505 W. Sixth Street.

If you remember, Capitol Federal left that location at the southwest corner of the intersection when it built a new building just across the road at the northwest corner of Sixth and Folks.

For Silver Lake Bank, the location will give the bank a drive-thru location in Lawrence. Currently, Silver Lake’s lone Lawrence branch is in downtown at 643 Massachusetts Street, which doesn’t have a drive-thru.

I’ve got a call into the bank’s local president for more details, so currently I don’t know whether the bank intends to operate both locations or will move all of the bank’s Lawrence operations to the Sixth and Folks Road site.

Silver Lake Bank has been operating in Lawrence since 2016, but its overall history dates back to 1909 when the bank was chartered in the community of Silver Lake, just northwest of Topeka. The bank has been owned by the Gideon family for more than 50 years, and that family has had a strong connection to the University of Kansas over the years.

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Lastly, let’s look at the big picture. The FDIC annually produces a report that shows the total deposits for every metro area in the country. Bank deposits certainly can be one way to gauge how much wealth is coming into or residing in a community, so looking at the totals can be interesting. I mainly look at the percentage growth rates of deposits in a metro, as the total size of deposits vary greatly based on the population of a metro and the amount of businesses located there.

On the growth rate front, the Lawrence metro — it encompasses all of Douglas County — hasn’t fared too well compared to other metros in Kansas. During the last year, Lawrence’s growth rate was second-to-last among that group. Since 2020, it has had the slowest growth rate.

First, here’s a look at the one year figures for deposits:

• Kansas City: $99.6 billion, up 12.6%

• Topeka: $6.5 billion, up 11%

• Manhattan: $4.4 billion, up 7.3%

• Lawrence: $3.5 billion, up 2.4%

• Wichita: $22.3 billion, up 1.8%

Here’s a look at how much deposits have grown since 2020, both in terms of dollars and percentage amount:

• Kansas City: up $27.3 billion, 37.7%

• Manhattan: up $851 million, 23.6%

• Topeka: up $911 million, 16%

• Wichita: up $2.9 billion, 15.4%

• Lawrence: up $432 million, 14%

The FDIC report also lists total deposits broken down by each bank in a metro market. That gives you a clear picture of what banks are the biggest in the community, at least in terms of deposits. That may or may not equate to them being the biggest lenders in a community. Also of note, the numbers are only measuring the amount of deposits that are within that metro area. A national bank may have hundreds of billions in deposits but only mere millions that are located in Lawrence branches, for example.

Below is a look at each bank in the county and its deposit totals, as of June 30, 2025.

• Capitol Federal Savings Bank: $601.1 million

• US Bank: $500.5 million

• Bank of America: $480 million

• Commerce Bank: $284.8 million

• The Central Trust Bank: $270.1 million

• Intrust Bank: $269.3 million

• Great American Bank: $265.4 million

• Mid-American Bank: $251.5 million

• Baldwin State Bank: $96.8 million

• Kaw Valley State Bank: $69.6 million

• Central National Bank: $59.9 million

• First State Bank and Trust: $55.9 million

• UMB Bank: $50 million, 1.43%

• Landmark National Bank: $45.8 million

• NBH Bank: $45.5 million, 1.3%

• Emprise Bank: $41.6 million

• Sunflower Bank: $41.4 million

• The Kansas State Bank: $20.4 million

• TriCentury Bank: $20.3 million

• Silver Lake Bank $13.8 million

• Mutual Savings Association: $13.2 million

• RCB Bank: $12.6 million