Capital and Regulatory Matters

Regulatory Capital Requirements. Banks and bank holding companies are subject to various regulatory capital requirements administered by state and federal banking agencies. Capital adequacy guidelines and, additionally for banks, prompt corrective action regulations, involve quantitative measures of assets, liabilities, and certain off-balance-sheet items calculated under regulatory accounting practices. Capital amounts and classifications are also subject to qualitative judgments by regulators about components, risk weighting and other factors.

Quantitative measures established by regulations to ensure capital adequacy require the maintenance of minimum amounts and ratios (set forth in the table below) of total and Tier 1 capital (as defined in the regulations) to risk-weighted assets (as defined), and of Tier 1 capital to adjusted quarterly average assets (as defined).

Cullen/Frost’s and Frost Bank’s Tier 1 capital consists of shareholders’ equity excluding unrealized gains and losses on securities available for sale, the accumulated gain or loss on effective cash flow hedging derivatives, the net actuarial gain/loss on the Corporation’s defined benefit post-retirement benefit plans, goodwill and other intangible assets. Tier 1 capital for Cullen/Frost also includes $144.5 million of 5.375% non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock in 2013 and $120 million of trust preferred securities issued by its unconsolidated subsidiary trust in 2013 and 2012 (see Note 7 - Borrowed Funds). Cullen/Frost’s and Frost Bank’s total capital is comprised of Tier 1 capital for each entity plus a permissible portion of the allowance for loan losses and outstanding subordinated debt. The Corporation’s aggregate $100 million of floating rate subordinated notes are not included in Tier 1 capital but the permissible portion (which decreases 20% per year during the final five years of the term of the notes) totaling $60 million at December 31, 2013 and $80 million at December 31, 2012, is included in total capital of Cullen/Frost.

The Tier 1 and total capital ratios are calculated by dividing the respective capital amounts by risk-weighted assets. Risk-weighted assets are calculated based on regulatory requirements and include total assets, excluding goodwill and other intangible assets, allocated by risk weight category, and certain off-balance-sheet items (primarily loan commitments). The leverage ratio is calculated by dividing Tier 1 capital by adjusted quarterly average total assets, which exclude goodwill and other intangible assets.

As further discussed below, in July 2013, Cullen/Frost’s and Frost Bank’s primary federal regulator, the Federal Reserve, published final rules establishing a new comprehensive capital framework for U.S. banking organizations which will become effective on January 1, 2015 (subject to a phase-in period).

Year-end actual and required capital ratios for Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank were as follows:



	Actual				Minimum Required for Capital Adequacy Purposes				Required to be Considered Well Capitalized
	Capital Amount		Ratio		Capital Amount		Ratio		Capital Amount		Ratio
2013
Total Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets
Cullen/Frost	$	2,110,774	15.79	%	$	1,069,150	8.00	%	$	1,336,437	10.00	%
Frost Bank	1,780,313		13.12		1,085,447		8.00		1,356,809		10.00	%
Tier 1 Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets
Cullen/Frost	1,958,336		14.65		534,575		4.00		801,862		6.00	%
Frost Bank	1,707,307		12.58		542,724		4.00		814,085		6.00	%
Leverage Ratio
Cullen/Frost	1,958,336		8.49		922,728		4.00		1,153,410		5.00	%
Frost Bank	1,707,307		7.42		920,107		4.00		1,150,134		5.00	%
2012
Total Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets
Cullen/Frost	$	1,947,974	15.11	%	$	1,031,526	8.00	%	$	1,289,408	10.00	%
Frost Bank	1,730,444		13.43		1,030,878		8.00		1,288,597		10.00	%
Tier 1 Capital to Risk-Weighted Assets
Cullen/Frost	1,763,521		13.68		515,763		4.00		773,645		6.00	%
Frost Bank	1,625,991		12.62		515,439		4.00		773,158		6.00	%
Leverage Ratio
Cullen/Frost	1,763,521		8.28		851,483		4.00		1,064,354		5.00	%
Frost Bank	1,625,991		7.64		850,954		4.00		1,063,693		5.00	%

Management believes that, as of December 31, 2013, Cullen/Frost and its bank subsidiary, Frost Bank, were “well capitalized” based on the ratios presented above.

Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank are subject to the regulatory capital requirements administered by the Federal Reserve (see the section captioned “Charter Conversion” below) and, for Frost Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”). Regulatory authorities can initiate certain mandatory actions if Cullen/Frost or Frost Bank fail to meet the minimum capital requirements, which could have a direct material effect on the Corporation’s financial statements. Management believes, as of December 31, 2013, that Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank meet all capital adequacy requirements to which they are subject.

Trust Preferred Securities. In accordance with the applicable accounting standard related to variable interest entities, the accounts of the Corporation’s wholly owned subsidiary trust, Cullen/Frost Capital Trust II, have not been included in the Corporation’s consolidated financial statements. However, the $120.0 million in trust preferred securities issued by this subsidiary trust have been included in the Tier 1 capital of Cullen/Frost for regulatory capital purposes pursuant to guidance from the Federal Reserve. As more fully discussed below, new rules related to the implementation of the Basel III capital framework will require the phase-out of certain hybrid securities, such as trust preferred securities, as Tier 1 capital of bank holding companies beginning January 1, 2015.

Preferred Stock. On February 15, 2013, the Corporation issued and sold 6,000,000 shares, or $150.0 million in aggregate liquidation preference, of it’s 5.375% Non-Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock, Series A, par value $0.01 and liquidation preference $25 per share (“Series A Preferred Stock”). Dividends on the Series A Preferred stock, if declared, accrue and are payable quarterly, in arrears, at a rate of 5.375%. The Series A Preferred Stock qualifies as Tier 1 capital for the purposes of the regulatory capital calculations. The net proceeds from the issuance and sale of the Series A Preferred Stock, after deducting underwriting discount and commissions, and the payment of expenses, were approximately $144.5 million. The net proceeds from the offering were used to fund the accelerated share repurchase further discussed below.

Stock Repurchase Plans. From time to time, the Corporation’s board of directors has authorized stock repurchase plans. In general, stock repurchase plans allow the Corporation to proactively manage its capital position and return excess capital to shareholders. Shares purchased under such plans also provide the Corporation with shares of common stock necessary to satisfy obligations related to stock compensation awards. The accelerated share repurchase discussed below was part of a stock repurchase program that was authorized by the Corporation’s board of directors in December 2012 to buy up to $150.0 million of the Corporation’s common stock.

Accelerated Share Repurchase. Concurrent with the issuance and sale of the Series A Preferred Stock, on February 12, 2013, the Corporation entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement (the “ASR agreement”) with Goldman, Sachs & Co. (“Goldman Sachs”). Under the ASR agreement, the Corporation paid $144.0 million to Goldman Sachs and received from Goldman Sachs 1,905,077 shares of the Corporation’s common stock, representing approximately 80% of the estimated total number of shares to be repurchased. Goldman Sachs borrowed such shares delivered to the Corporation from stock lenders, and during the term of the ASR agreement, purchased shares in the open market to return to those stock lenders. Final settlement of the ASR agreement occurred on August 13, 2013 and the Corporation received an additional 331,671 shares. The total number of shares that the Corporation repurchased was based on the volume-weighted-average price per share of the Corporation’s common stock during the repurchase period as adjusted pursuant to the terms and conditions of the ASR agreement.

Dividend Restrictions. In the ordinary course of business, Cullen/Frost is dependent upon dividends from Frost Bank to provide funds for the payment of dividends to shareholders and to provide for other cash requirements. Banking regulations may limit the amount of dividends that may be paid. Approval by regulatory authorities is required if the effect of dividends declared would cause the regulatory capital of Frost Bank to fall below specified minimum levels. Approval is also required if dividends declared exceed the net profits for that year combined with the retained net profits for the preceding two years. Under the foregoing dividend restrictions and while maintaining its “well capitalized” status, at December 31, 2013, Frost Bank could pay aggregate dividends of up to $294.7 million to Cullen/Frost without prior regulatory approval.

Under the terms of the junior subordinated deferrable interest debentures that Cullen/Frost has issued to Cullen/Frost Capital Trust II, Cullen/Frost has the right at any time during the term of the debentures to defer the payment of interest at any time or from time to time for an extension period not exceeding 20 consecutive quarterly periods with respect to each extension period. In the event that the Corporation has elected to defer interest on the debentures, the Corporation may not, with certain exceptions, declare or pay any dividends or distributions on its capital stock or purchase or acquire any of its capital stock.

Under the terms of the Series A Preferred Stock, in the event that the Corporation does not declare and pay dividends on the Series A Preferred Stock for the most recent dividend period, the Corporation may not, with certain exceptions, declare or pay dividends on, or purchase, redeem or otherwise acquire, shares of its common stock or any securities of the Corporation that rank junior to the Series A Preferred Stock.

Charter Conversion. On June 22, 2012, Frost Bank, the sole banking subsidiary of the Corporation, became a Texas state chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve System. Accordingly, the Texas Department of Banking and the Federal Reserve are now the primary regulators of Frost Bank, and Frost Bank will no longer be regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”). Deposits at Frost Bank continue to be insured by the FDIC up to applicable limits.

Basel III Capital Rules. In July 2013, Cullen/Frost’s and Frost Bank’s primary federal regulator, the Federal Reserve, published final rules (the “Basel III Capital Rules”) establishing a new comprehensive capital framework for U.S. banking organizations. The rules implement the Basel Committee’s December 2010 framework known as “Basel III” for strengthening international capital standards as well as certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. The Basel III Capital Rules substantially revise the risk-based capital requirements applicable to bank holding companies and depository institutions, including Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank, compared to the current U.S. risk-based capital rules. The Basel III Capital Rules define the components of capital and address other issues affecting the numerator in banking institutions’ regulatory capital ratios. The Basel III Capital Rules also address risk weights and other issues affecting the denominator in banking institutions’ regulatory capital ratios and replace the existing risk-weighting approach, which was derived from the Basel I capital accords of the Basel Committee, with a more risk-sensitive approach based, in part, on the standardized approach in the Basel Committee’s 2004 “Basel II” capital accords. The Basel III Capital Rules also implement the requirements of Section 939A of the Dodd-Frank Act to remove references to credit ratings from the federal banking agencies’ rules. The Basel III Capital Rules are effective for Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank on January 1, 2015 (subject to a phase-in period).

The Basel III Capital Rules, among other things, (i) introduce a new capital measure called “Common Equity Tier 1” (“CET1”), (ii) specify that Tier 1 capital consists of CET1 and “Additional Tier 1 capital” instruments meeting specified requirements, (iii) define CET1 narrowly by requiring that most deductions/adjustments to regulatory capital measures be made to CET1 and not to the other components of capital and (iv) expand the scope of the deductions/adjustments as compared to existing regulations.

When fully phased in on January 1, 2019, the Basel III Capital Rules will require Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank to maintain (i) a minimum ratio of CET1 to risk-weighted assets of at least 4.5%, plus a 2.5% “capital conservation buffer” (which is added to the 4.5% CET1 ratio as that buffer is phased in, effectively resulting in a minimum ratio of CET1 to risk-weighted assets of at least 7.0% upon full implementation), (ii) a minimum ratio of Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets of at least 6.0%, plus the capital conservation buffer (which is added to the 6.0% Tier 1 capital ratio as that buffer is phased in, effectively resulting in a minimum Tier 1 capital ratio of 8.5% upon full implementation), (iii) a minimum ratio of Total capital (that is, Tier 1 plus Tier 2) to risk-weighted assets of at least 8.0%, plus the capital conservation buffer (which is added to the 8.0% total capital ratio as that buffer is phased in, effectively resulting in a minimum total capital ratio of 10.5% upon full implementation) and (iv) a minimum leverage ratio of 4.0%, calculated as the ratio of Tier 1 capital to average assets (as compared to a current minimum leverage ratio of 3.0% for banking organizations that either have the highest supervisory rating or have implemented the appropriate federal regulatory authority’s risk-adjusted measure for market risk).

The Basel III Capital Rules also provides for a “countercyclical capital buffer” that is applicable to only certain covered institutions and is not expected to have any current applicability to Cullen/Frost or Frost Bank.

The aforementioned capital conservation buffer is designed to absorb losses during periods of economic stress. Banking institutions with a ratio of CET1 to risk-weighted assets above the minimum but below the conservation buffer (or below the combined capital conservation buffer and countercyclical capital buffer, when the latter is applied) will face constraints on dividends, equity repurchases and compensation based on the amount of the shortfall.

Under the Basel III Capital Rules, the initial minimum capital ratios as of January 1, 2015 will be as follows:


•	4.5% CET1 to risk-weighted assets.


•	6.0% Tier 1 capital to risk-weighted assets.


•	8.0% Total capital to risk-weighted assets.

The Basel III Capital Rules provide for a number of deductions from and adjustments to CET1. These include, for example, the requirement that mortgage servicing rights, deferred tax assets arising from temporary differences that could not be realized through net operating loss carrybacks and significant investments in non-consolidated financial entities be deducted from CET1 to the extent that any one such category exceeds 10% of CET1 or all such categories in the aggregate exceed 15% of CET1. Under current capital standards, the effects of accumulated other comprehensive income items included in capital are excluded for the purposes of determining regulatory capital ratios. Under the Basel III Capital Rules, the effects of certain accumulated other comprehensive items are not excluded; however, non-advanced approaches banking organizations, including Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank, may make a one-time permanent election to continue to exclude these items. Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank expect to make this election in order to avoid significant variations in the level of capital depending upon the impact of interest rate fluctuations on the fair value of the Corporation’s available-for-sale securities portfolio. The Basel III Capital Rules also preclude certain hybrid securities, such as trust preferred securities, as Tier 1 capital of bank holding companies, subject to phase-out. As a result, beginning in 2015, only 25% of the Corporation’s trust preferred securities will be included in Tier 1 capital and in 2016, none of the Corporation’s trust preferred securities will be included in Tier 1 capital. Trust preferred securities no longer included in the Corporation’s Tier 1 capital may nonetheless be included as a component of Tier 2 capital on a permanent basis without phase-out.

Implementation of the deductions and other adjustments to CET1 will begin on January 1, 2015 and will be phased-in over a four-year period (beginning at 40% on January 1, 2015 and an additional 20% per year thereafter). The implementation of the capital conservation buffer will begin on January 1, 2016 at the 0.625% level and be phased in over a four-year period (increasing by that amount on each subsequent January 1, until it reaches 2.5% on January 1, 2019).

With respect to Frost Bank, the Basel III Capital Rules also revise the “prompt corrective action” regulations pursuant to Section 38 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, by (i) introducing a CET1 ratio requirement at each level (other than critically undercapitalized), with the required CET1 ratio being 6.5% for well-capitalized status; (ii) increasing the minimum Tier 1 capital ratio requirement for each category (other than critically undercapitalized), with the minimum Tier 1 capital ratio for well-capitalized status being 8.0% (as compared to the current 6.0%); and (iii) eliminating the current provision that provides that a bank with a composite supervisory rating of 1 may have a 3% leverage ratio and still be adequately capitalized. The Basel III Capital Rules do not change the total risk-based capital requirement for any prompt corrective action category.

The Basel III Capital Rules prescribe a standardized approach for risk weightings that expand the risk-weighting categories from the current four Basel I-derived categories (0%, 20%, 50% and 100%) to a much larger and more risk-sensitive number of categories, depending on the nature of the assets, generally ranging from 0% for U.S. government and agency securities, to 600% for certain equity exposures, and resulting in higher risk weights for a variety of asset categories. Specifics changes to current rules impacting the Corporation’s determination of risk-weighted assets include, among other things:


•	Applying a 150% risk weight instead of a 100% risk weight for certain high volatility commercial real estate acquisition, development and construction loans.


•	Assigning a 150% risk weight to exposures (other than residential mortgage exposures) that are 90 days past due.


•	Providing for a 20% credit conversion factor for the unused portion of a commitment with an original maturity of one year or less that is not unconditionally cancellable (currently set at 0%).


•	Providing for a risk weight, generally not less than 20% with certain exceptions, for securities lending transactions based on the risk weight category of the underlying collateral securing the transaction.


•	Providing for a 100% risk weight for claims on securities firms.


•	Eliminating the current 50% cap on the risk weight for OTC derivatives.

In addition, the Basel III Capital Rules provide more advantageous risk weights for derivatives and repurchase-style transactions cleared through a qualifying central counterparty and increase the scope of eligible guarantors and eligible collateral for purposes of credit risk mitigation.

Management believes that, as of December 31, 2013, Cullen/Frost and Frost Bank would meet all capital adequacy requirements under the Basel III Capital Rules on a fully phased-in basis as if such requirements were currently in effect.