Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) is a Texas-based financial holding company and bank holding company headquartered at 111 West Houston Street, San Antonio. Its bank subsidiary, Frost Bank, traces its founding to 1868; the holding company was formed in the 1977 merger of Frost Bank Corp. and Houston-based Cullen Bankers, Inc. It has been listed on the NYSE since 1997. Per its own fact sheet, it is among the 50 largest U.S. banks, with roughly $52.5 billion in assets and about $65 billion in trust, brokerage and advisory assets, and it reports roughly 6,000 employees and ~$2.19 billion in 2025 revenue. It is publicly traded and independent (no parent), with a market capitalization in the high single-digit to low double-digit billions.
Operations. Cullen/Frost is an operating company, not an NPE. Through Frost Bank it provides commercial and consumer banking (deposits, lending, mortgage and home-equity loans), treasury management, international and correspondent banking, and capital-markets/fixed-income services across Texas markets. Fee businesses include Frost Wealth Advisors (trust, retirement and investment management), Frost Insurance Agency (property/casualty, group health and life), Frost Brokerage Services, Frost Investment Advisors and Frost Securities.
Patent-litigation posture. Per the tracked data, Cullen/Frost appears once, exclusively as a defendant (0 plaintiff cases, 1 defendant case), consistent with an operating company being sued rather than asserting patents. The single case is Wapp Tech Limited Partnership and Wapp Tech Corp. v. Apple Inc., Capital One, N.A., Capital One Services, LLC, Frost Bank and Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc., No. 4:25-cv-00230, filed March 6, 2025 in the Eastern District of Texas (Sherman Division) — a plaintiff-friendly venue. Plaintiff Wapp asserted five patents (U.S. 8,924,192; 9,298,864; 9,971,678; 10,353,811; 10,691,579) covering mobile application development, device/network simulation and app distribution; court filings describe Wapp as having no employees, products or business beyond patent litigation, i.e., a non-practicing entity. The case targeted Apple's Xcode tool and co-defendant banks' mobile applications.
Context. Frost moved to dismiss (including on venue and Rule 12(b)(6) grounds); the court denied that motion as moot after a joint notice of settlement between Wapp and Frost, ordered May 26, 2026. Wapp had previously asserted the same patent family against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America/Wells Fargo and Micro Focus. No other litigation involving Cullen/Frost appears in the tracked data.