Welcome to the First Financial Bankshares 49th annual meeting since the company was established as a bank holding company in 1973. You can't imagine how good it is to see all of you. What a beautiful group. I think this is the largest crowd we've had. You can tell COVID's over and thank God. We are so glad, you know, because the last two meetings, one was totally virtual. The second year, we just had the meeting. It's nice that today we're going to have everything. We're even gonna have the luncheon. We look forward to visiting with you at the luncheon and getting some time to get to see you and spend some time, quality time with you.
We also welcome those of you who are viewing live stream on the meeting. We've got the live stream going, so we've got people all over the world watching this meeting right here. Welcome to them. I'm Scott Dueser, and as Chairman of the board of directors, it's my pleasure to preside at today's meeting. We are honored to have so many of our shareholders in person or on the live video stream. Your interest and dedication to our company is very gratifying to us. Your continuous support is greatly appreciated. As set out in the proxy statement dated March 17th, 2022, our directors, Tucker S. Bridwell and David L. Copeland, are serving as our proxies and are authorized to vote in accordance with your proxy card, which was completed and returned by mail, internet or in person.
All proxies received prior to the meeting will be voted in accordance with instructions contained in the proxy statement. If you have revoked your proxy prior to the meeting and are voting today at this meeting, please mark your ballot, raise your hand, so we will collect your ballot at this time to submit them to Mr. Copeland and Mr. Bridwell to tabulate these votes with the proxies previously received. Anybody have a voting card? I knew that would be the case. Good. Great. You've already done it. While Mr. Copeland and Mr. Bridwell tabulate the number of shares represented either in person or by proxy, I'd like to introduce our senior management, who truly are the ones that lead this company. I'd ask each one to stand and remain standing to be recognized as a group.
I'd ask for you to pay particular attention to the experience level of each one of these professionals as we call their names. Scott Dueser, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Ron Butler, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, also the CEO of the Abilene Region. James Gordon, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer. Kirk Thaxton, Chairman, President, and CEO of First Financial Trust & Asset Management Company. Luke Longhofer, Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer. Randy Roewe, Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer. John Ruzicka, Executive Vice President, Chief Information Officer. Kyle McVey, Executive Vice President, Chief Accounting Officer. David Bailey, Executive Vice President, Commercial Banking, also the CEO of the Eastland Division. Marna Yerigan, Executive Vice President, Credit Administration. Rett Everett, Executive Vice President, Credit Administration. Larry Kentz, Senior Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer. Okay, now our business line of executives.
Each one of these people run a line of business for us across the whole company. Troy Fore, President, First Financial Mortgage. Chris Cook, Executive Vice President, Advertising and Marketing. Monica Houston, Executive Vice President, Retail banking and Training. Andrew Slagle, Executive Vice President, Treasury Management. Maggie Tuschinski, Executive Vice President, Chief Digital officer. Mike Wolverton, Executive Vice President, Consumer Lending. Frank Gioia, Senior Vice President, customer care center, which is our call center. Brandon Harris, Senior Vice President, appraisal services. Josh Brown, Senior Vice President, human resources. Gary Miliron, Vice President, Property management. Now our CEOs and presidents. Marelyn Shedd, President of our Abilene region. David Bailey, CEO of Eastland division. Candi Kanady, President of our Eastland Division. Joseph Crouch, President of our Sweetwater Division. Jamie Esch, Chairman, CEO of Hereford. Chris Evatt, Chairman, President, CEO of San Angelo.
Austin Elsner, Chairman, President, and CEO, Cleburne. Trent Swearengin, Chairman, President, and CEO, Stephenville. Justin Hooper, Chairman, President, and CEO, Weatherford. Mark Jones, Chairman of our Southlake region. Shelby Bruhn, President and CEO of our Southlake region. Stephen Lee, Chairman, President, CEO of our Southeast Texas region. Chris Baughman, President and CEO of our Conroe region. Marcus Morris, President and CEO of our Fort Worth region. Shelley Dacus, President and CEO of our Kingwood region. Nora Thompson, President and CEO of our Bryan-College Station region. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your management team who make this bank one of the top banks, top performing banks in the country. Each of the bank regions, as well as our trust and technology companies, are guided by very capable boards.
All together, we have 113 business and professional leaders other than bank presidents and company representatives who serve our 12 regions and our trust and technology companies. As we say, our boards are made up of the movers and shakers of the communities we serve. Their guidance and counsel are greatly appreciated, and their influence in the markets we serve is vital to our ongoing success of this organization. We thank them for their dedication and direction that they give us every day. For the past 19 physical years, the accounting firm of Ernst & Young has performed the audit of our company. We appreciate their professionalism, and we are pleased to have representatives from the firm join us in today's meeting. Matt Witt, Partner, and Lee Branch, Senior Manager, are here today representing the firm and are available to answer all the hard questions.
If you have any questions, you just find these guys. They know it all. There isn't anything they haven't looked at. Now that I have had the opportunity to introduce our management team and auditors, we can move along with today's official business. In accordance with the annual meeting notice and the proxy materials that were available on March 17th, 2022, all shareholders of record as of March 1st, 2022, there are three items that require the official vote of shareholders. These were covered in detail in the proxy materials. However, as we present these items, if any of you have any questions, please raise your hand and let us recognize you so that we may answer your question. Mr. Copeland, have you tabulated the votes?
We have.
Mr. Copeland, will you please give us the number of shares that are represented by proxy and in person?
Total number of shares represented today is 122,605,702 shares, which represents pardon me, 86% of the outstanding shares.
Thank you, Mr. Copeland. Just want to say to all you stockholders, thank you for voting. There are very few firms that get 86% of their stockholders to vote. Says a lot to the market out there that we have such support by you, our stockholders. Okay, the number of shares represented constitute a quorum, therefore, this meeting is properly and duly convened. That being the case, it is our standard procedure now to read the minutes of the last year's meeting. Mr. James Gordon has in hand the minutes of that meeting that was held on April 27th, 2021. The meeting had four official items of business, those being the election of directors, the ratification and appointment of independent auditors, the advisory vote on the compensation of the named executives, and the approval of the 2021 Omnibus Stock and Incentive Plan.
All four items were approved. As set out in the proxy statement dated March 17th, 2022, we have three official items of business for this meeting. Our first item is the election of directors to serve on the corporate board for the coming year. As stated in the meeting notice and the proxy statement, the Nominating-Corporate Governance Committee and the board of directors have recommended that 11 directors be elected, all of whom are currently serving as your board of directors. The nominees and their primary business are as follows: April Anthony of Dallas, Managing Partner, Anthony Family Investment Partners, Ltd., Executive Chair of Homecare Homebase, and former CEO of Encompass Home Health & Hospice. Go ahead and stand up. Thank you, April. Vianei Lopez Braun of Fort Worth, Chief Development Officer, Decker Jones, P.C. David L. Copeland of Abilene, President of SIPCO, Inc. and the Shelton Family Foundation.
Mike B. Denny of Abilene, President, Batjer & Associates, Inc. F. Scott Dueser of Abilene, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Financial Bankshares, Inc. Murray Edwards of Clyde, Principal of The Edwards Group. Dr. Eli Jones of Bryan-College Station, Professor of Marketing, Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar, former Dean of the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University. Tim Lancaster of Lubbock, Retired President and CEO of Hendrick Health System. Kade Matthews of Amarillo, Ranching and Investments. Robert Nickles, Jr. of Kingwood, Executive Chairman of Alegacy Group, LLC. Johnny E. Trotter of Hereford, President and CEO of Livestock Investors Ltd. This is the recommended slate of directors for the coming year. Thank you for our board members. Okay, Mr. Copeland, give us the tabulation of votes.
Scott, no director received less than 96.9% of the shares voted.
I think, we have all our directors in place. Thank you, Mr. Copeland. With these votes, these 11 directors are duly elected. The second item of business is to ratify the audit committee of the board of directors' appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31st, 2022. As noted in the meeting notice in the proxy statement, the board of directors has recommended the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP be ratified. The totals in this regard, Mr. Copeland.
Once again, 98.3% of the shares were voted for ratification.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Copeland. That's a majority, and the appointment is ratified. Were you guys nervous? I don't think so. They do a great job. We're very pleased with them. The third item of business is the advisory vote on compensation of our named executive officers pursuant to the Securities and Exchange Commission rules. We're again conducting a shareholder advisory vote referred to as Say-on-Pay, to give shareholders the opportunity to express their views on compensation of our named executive officers and the executive compensation philosophy, policies, and programs described in the proxy statement. As noted in the meeting notice in the proxy statement, the board of directors recommends approval of the resolution approving the compensation of the named executive officers. Mr. Copeland, the totals in this regard.
Those voting for comprise 98% of the vote.
All right. Thank you, Mr. Copeland. That's a majority, and the advisory resolution is approved. Okay, this concludes the official business, and we appreciate the strong approval of the three proposals recommended by the board of directors this morning. There being no further official business to come before the meeting, the 2022 annual meeting of First Financial Bankshares is now adjourned. James Gordon will now present our financial results, and Kirk Thaxton will discuss highlights and activities from the trust company. Then it'll be my pleasure to present the 2022 and current activities of the company. James.
Thank you, Scott, and good morning to everyone. I'm extremely excited to be with you here in Abilene or via our live stream broadcast. Also, as I near completion of my second year with First Financial, my family and I feel truly blessed to be part of the First Financial family. First, please note the forward-looking statement disclosure shown on the screen. Now looking at our 2021 financial highlights, which reflect our momentum in terms of new customer growth created over the last two years for First Financial. We are extremely proud but humbled to accomplish our 35th consecutive year of increased earnings. Our net income of $227.6 million compares to $202 million for 2020, representing a 12.6% increase.
Contributing to this increase was an increase of $20.5 million in net interest income, driven primarily by our growth in loans and investment securities of $2.4 billion, funded by a $1.9 billion increase in deposits. Since January 1st, 2020, following the addition of our 12th region with the acquisition of The Bank & Trust located in Bryan-College Station, we have grown total assets by over $4 billion- $13.1 billion at year-end. Our trust company continued its growth with total fees of $36.1 million, up 22.4% for the year, with $8.6 billion in market value of assets managed at year-end. Kirk will provide additional details on their outstanding year following my comments.
Diluted earnings per share were $1.59 for 2021, compared to $1.42 for 2020, reflecting the similar increase in net earnings for the year. Our return on average assets is a key measure of financial performance for the banking industry. This is net income as a percent of average assets, which was 1.89% for 2021. This compares extremely well to our peer group average of 1.26%, which places us in the 93rd percentile of our peer group. Our Federal Reserve peer group consists of 130 bank holding companies throughout the United States with assets greater than $10 billion.
Another important measure for our shareholders is our return on average equity, which is our net income as a percentage of average shareholders' equity, which was 13.31% for 2021. Compared to 12.93% for 2020, which places us in the 68th percentile of our peer group. This ratio is especially strong when you consider our capital levels are among the strongest within our peer group. Our primary revenue comes from our net interest income, which is measured by the net interest margin earned on earning assets. In 2021, our net interest margin was pressured by historically low interest rates following the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Our net interest margin was 3.4% for 2021 compared to our peer group average of 2.8%, which places near the 88th percentile of the peer group. We work hard each day to maximize the investment of our liquid assets while maintaining and growing loans, while maintaining the loan rates and managing interest paid on deposits. Next, looking at our overall efficiency of managing operating expenses. The efficiency ratio is a performance indicator that represents the ratio of non-interest expense to total net interest income plus non-interest income. In simple terms, this ratio reflects how much each dollar of revenue is spent on our operating expenses. The lower the ratio, the better. In 2021, our efficiency ratio was 45.84%, up slightly from 45.49% in 2020.
Nearly $0.46 are spent for each $1 of revenue earned. Our efficiency ratio compares very favorably to our peer group average of 58.8%, placing us in the 88th percentile within that peer group. Our regulatory capital ratios are now shown on this slide. As you can see, our capital ratios are well over double the required level to meet the well-capitalized regulatory requirements. Our total shareholders capital at December 31st, 2021, totaled $1.7 billion, and our tangible capital was $1.4 billion, excluding $317 million of goodwill and other intangibles. Our capital levels provide a strong base for continued growth. In fact, our capital ratios have remained well above required levels, even considering the $4 billion in growth over the last two years.
From a balance sheet perspective, we have total assets at the end of 2021 of $13.1 billion. Our growth in 2021 was $2.2 billion, driven by $1.9 billion in deposit growth, while total assets are up $4.8 billion since 2019, including our acquisition in Bryan/College Station. Total loans were $5.4 billion at the end of 2021, compared to $5.2 billion at the end of 2020, an increase of $684 million or 13.84% when excluding the decrease in PPP loans and held-for-sale loans. Our loan to deposit ratio was 51% at December 31st, 2021.
While we are working hard to grow our loan portfolio, pricing and credit quality continues to be front of mind as we serve our customers across Texas. Our growth is driven by the strength of the communities across Texas. Some key economic rankings recently for Texas. In 2021, the state of Texas ranked number one again in the United States in GDP growth, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, highlighted by winning the Governor's Cup for the tenth year in a row for attracting new business to the state. In March 2022, SmartAsset ranked the Bryan/College Station metropolitan area as a top 20 housing market for growth and stability. Recently, four Texas metropolitan areas, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and Abilene, ranked in the top 10 nationally of their respective size categories for economic development during 2021.
With that growth, our non-performing assets totaled $34.2 million, and as a percentage of loans and foreclosed assets was 63 basis points at December 31st, 2021, which compares very favorably to our peer group at 71 basis points. Our allowance for credit losses totaled $63.5 million or 1.18% of total loans, reflecting the new accounting for credit losses, commonly referred to as CECL, adopted during 2020. Our total deposits increased to $10.6 billion, up $1.9 billion or 22% over 2020. Our non-interest demand deposits remain strong at $3.8 billion or 35.8% of our total deposits, while positively supporting our net interest margin and the overall profitability of our company.
Our growth is reflective of our continued focus on customer service excellence on a daily basis, which helped us open over 16,000 net new deposit accounts in 2021 and approximately 12,000 accounts in 2020, compared to approximately 5,400 accounts on average for 2017 through 2019. After finishing covering the year-end, now let me briefly highlight for our first quarter 2022 numbers that were released to the public in our earnings release last Thursday afternoon. Net earnings were $56 million for the first quarter of 2022, down slightly from $56.9 million for the first quarter of 2021. We were extremely pleased with our quarterly earnings to begin the year. However, certain items as follows impacted our results.
Net interest income increased $6.6 million, reflecting our overall balance sheet growth, offset by lower PPP origination fees of $4.9 million from the prior year. Our average interest earning assets grew to $12.5 billion, reflecting growth of $1.95 billion from a year ago. Our net interest margin decreased to 3.22%, driven by the continued lower rate environment impacting our investment in loan yields, partially offset by lower funding costs. Reflective of the current interest rate environment, our mortgage revenues declined to $6.3 million from $9.9 million a year ago but were essentially flat with the fourth quarter of 2021.
Our provision for credit losses was a provision of $4.8 million in 2021, compared to a negative provision of $2 million a year ago, representing a $6.8 million increase driven by our continued strong loan growth and outlook for the economy. Trust income increased to $9.8 million from $8.3 million due to significant growth in assets managed to $8.6 billion. Total non-interest expenses were $59.2 million compared to $57.7 million last year, reflecting an efficiency ratio of 44.16% compared to 45.36% last year. Again, noting that lower is better for this ratio.
Our diluted earnings per share were $0.39 per share for the first quarter of 2020 compared to $0.40 per share in 2021. We ended the first quarter with assets totaling $13.3 billion, up from $12.1 billion at March 31st, 2021, driven again by our strong growth in deposits. Similarly, our loans increased to $5.6 billion at March 31st, 2022, up from December 31st, 2021, by $214 million when you exclude the reduction in PPP and held-for-sale loans, continuing our strong momentum from 2021. Deposits increased to $11 billion at March 31st, 2022, up $433 million over the balances at December 31st, 2021.
This now concludes my review of our 2021 and first quarter 2022 financial results. Now I will turn the meeting over to Kirk Thaxton to review the 2021 outstanding results for the First Financial Trust & Asset Management Company. Thank you for your support, both the shareholders and customers of First Financial.
Good morning. First Financial Trust enjoyed another successful year in 2021, producing outstanding growth in both assets under management and earnings. Total assets increased $482 million to finish the year with a book value of $5.88 billion, an increase of 8.9%. The market value of our assets under management surpassed the $8 billion milestone, finishing the year at $8.70 billion, an increase of $1.19 billion or 15.8%. The Trust company experienced excellent earnings growth in 2021. Trust fee revenue increased $6.62 million or 22.4% from $29.53 million in 2020 to $36.15 million in 2021.
Our earnings growth in 2021 was positively impacted by our oil and gas fee revenue, which increased $1.87 million or 67% from $2.78 million in 2020 to $4.64 million in 2021. The increase was due primarily to additional assets under management, increased production, and higher oil and gas prices. As you can see from this slide, our oil and gas revenue continues to vary from year to year based upon market conditions and it remains an important line of business for us, representing approximately 13% of total revenue in 2021 compared to 9.4% in 2020. Our after-tax net income contribution to First Financial Bankshares increased $3.25 million or 22.4% from $14.47 million in 2020 to $17.72 million in 2021.
Almost all of our offices experienced double-digit net income growth. Our Beaumont office led the way with net income growth of 81%, followed by our Stephenville office at 42.3% and our Fort Worth office at 23.4%. 2021 was another great year for the equity markets. Our best performing portfolio for the year was our equity income portfolio, which finished the year with a return of 27.19%. All of our portfolios have impressive long-term returns. Our core portfolio has a 10-year average return of 15.86%, while our equity income portfolio has a 10-year average return of 14.95%, which is 260 basis points per year higher than the Lipper Equity Income Benchmark.
Our portfolio managers, led by Chris Montoya, currently manage approximately $4 billion in equity assets utilizing five different equity styles, allowing us to provide the appropriate equity strategy to meet each customer's needs and risk tolerance. Bill Rowe continues to do an excellent job of managing our bond portfolios and currently manages approximately $2.6 billion in fixed income assets in addition to the $6.5 billion managed for the holding company. 2021 was an extremely challenging year for fixed income. However, Bill was able to outperform both the taxable and tax-free benchmarks in 2021, as well as at the three, five , and 10-year levels. We continue to be excited about our newest markets in San Antonio and Bryan-College Station. We have excellent growth opportunities in both locations and are starting to see positive results.
Additionally, our Houston office, which was started at the end of 2018, went over $100 million in assets and became profitable in 2021. Barbara Hill, who has been managing our Odessa office, retired at the end of 2021. Barbara started this office for us in 2009 and grew it to over $300 million in assets under management. We're most appreciative of Barbara's contributions and we wish her the best in retirement. We also want to recognize Missy Fenton, who was selected as the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Colleen Barrett Award for Administrative Excellence. Missy was selected from over 500 finalists by Colleen Barrett herself. Missy is most deserving of this award, and we are proud of this special recognition. Missy, please stand and be recognized. We're pleased to announce that the first quarter of 2022 has produced outstanding results.
The book value of our assets under management has increased over $340 million since year-end, surpassing the $6 billion milestone to reach $6.22 billion, while the market value of our assets under management is currently at $8.63 billion. Against the backdrop of rising interest rates and market volatility, our net income for the first quarter of $5.14 million was an increase of $1.07 million or 26.6% when compared to the first quarter of 2021. These first quarter results have us excited about the opportunities that lie before us in 2022. The foundation of our business has always been based upon relationships. We're fortunate to have worked with many families for generations, whether it's our experience in investments, mineral management, property management, employee benefit management, or trust and estate administration.
Our highly talented and experienced team remains dedicated to providing unparalleled customer service to you and your families for generations to come. Thanks to each and every customer of First Financial Trust for allowing us to serve your trust and investment needs. For those of you who are not yet our trust customers, we look forward to the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for your attention this morning, and I'll turn the podium over to Scott.
Thank you, James and Kirk. As you can see, the bank and the trust company are doing very well. Let me put some color to the last two years so you can kind of put this together and see where we are today. As you notice, our annual report is titled Momentum, which is exactly what we gained over the last two years. Because we decided not to lock our doors, but to come to work, manage through the pandemic, serve our customers, make our facilities the safest place for our employees and our customers to work and to visit. Little did we know that this decision, along with some our prior preparation, would set us up to have the largest growth that this company has ever experienced.
It's interesting when the pandemic started and many banks locked their doors and went home, because when their customers went to go to the bank and their doors were locked, they came to us. The fact that we were open made such a difference, and you're going to see that in the growth of our company of $4 billion. Over the past few years, we achieved that organic growth. It was all organic. We didn't buy a bank. Approximately $4 billion. That's like us going out and buying a bank for $4 billion, but we didn't pay for it, and we didn't have the cost of bringing that bank into the system. It was outstanding. You can't imagine how great that is. The most positive thing is our employees, the branches, our systems, and our capital have absorbed this large growth without any problems.
It just happened. We intend to build on the momentum that this has created for our company. We were well prepared to meet the challenges of operating through the pandemic because we'd already made excellent customer service a top priority with one of the pre-2020 initiatives of training our employees by Horst Schulze, co-founder of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, the renowned legend of customer service across the world. When you have Horst Schulze come and train your people personally, it's a big deal. I will tell you, it changed our customer service throughout our whole company to the excellence that we have today. We updated our company website, and we were able to communicate with our customers at a moment's notice.
As things changed on the PPP loans, we were able to tell our customers. They knew to go to our website, and they knew what to do. That made a huge difference. We were also able to put the Paycheck Protection Program application on our digital loan platform so customers could fill out the application on their phone or their computer, send it to us for processing that day. Made a huge difference. Our employees worked through each night to rapidly process the PPP loans. What we found out is when we started putting in those loans in the system, everybody was. So, the system was jammed up, and they'd come back to you, and you'd put them in, they'd come back.
Our guys said, "Shoot, we'll start putting input in when everybody else is closed." They stayed up all night long inputting loans that went through immediately, and the next day, all the loans were input, ready to go while other banks were fighting the system. It was people going beyond the call of duty to make that happen. We quickly received statewide recognition for this effort, which brought customers to us from other banks that couldn't process their loans. When the new customers came to us and asked us to process their PPP loan, we asked them for all their business. In most cases, we got it.
Over the last two years, we've originated $970 million in PPP loans and $142 million in Main Street Lending Program loans for the purpose of keeping our customers' doors open and allowing them to keep their employees paid. Throughout the two years, we remained Texas strong, and the new business we received created significant momentum that rolled right into this year. Reflecting that momentum has been the number of net new accounts we opened over those two years. Historically, we would open about 5,000 net new accounts. In 2020, we opened 12,000 net new accounts. That's that business from those other banks coming over to us. In 2022, we opened 16,000 net new accounts. In the first quarter of 2022, we opened 3,300 net new accounts.
We're already continuing to open more accounts. Regarding these accomplishments, I want to say that I couldn't be prouder of our team of professional bankers who rose to the occasion and made the last two years such a success. Over the last five years, we have increased earnings from $120 million- $228 million, an increase of $108 million. If somebody would have told me five years ago that this past year, we'd make $228 million, I would've said, "I don't know how," but it happened. Over the past five years, our average return has been 20.29% a year. Some of you in this room have experienced what's on the next slide. This is pretty cool.
Since we went public in 1973, and you'll remember we're 131 years old, so we've been around a long time. Walter took the company public, Walter Johnson took the public company in 1973, not to raise capital. This company has never raised capital, never had to, outside the original capital that they raised to start the company. It's all been on earnings. In 1973, he took the company public to make the stock liquid so our stockholders would know every day what their stock was worth and could sell it, and it'd be liquid. We have increased earnings from that year. That year was $1 million. This last year was $228 million, over 48 years.
If you owned 100 shares in 1973, today, you would have 34,378 shares because of stock splits. Those shares in 1973 would have been worth $4,900. At the end of 2021, those same shares would have been worth $1,747,676, a 13.02% average annual return, excluding dividends through those years, while the average annual return of the S&P 500 would have been 7.81% through those years. Almost twice what the S&P did. As we have always said, we can't control the stock price. We can work hard to produce increased earnings, which ultimately drives stock price.
As you know, with the war in Ukraine, inflation, the supply chain interruption, higher interest rates, the stock market has been down, which you can see right there. As you can tell, we compare well. We're in the red. We compare well with the other indices. Although our closing stock price was at $41.33 yesterday. We continue to be the same outstanding bank we were a year ago when we were at $55. Nothing's changed in our company. Frankly, our credit is the best I've ever seen, and the economy is one of the best I've ever seen. The Texas economy is doing outstanding. What's changed? It's the national situation, and it's the market. It's how they look at our stock today and how they look at all the other stocks today.
It really doesn't bother me that we have stock fluctuation as long as we're fluctuating with the market. When our stock price is high, it allows investors to exit the stock with a good price, and when it is low, it gives investors the opportunity to buy our stock at a good price. For the past 13 years, we have been selected as one of the top seven banks in the country from $5 billion-$50 billion by Bank Director Magazine. Two of those years we were selected number one, and this year we have been selected number two for the fifth time. The rating is based on First Financial's financial strength and safety coming from the factors such as capital, asset quality, profitability, risk management, and sound business practices. Now let's talk about our footprint.
As you can see, The Bank & Trust, Bryan/College Station, which we bought two years ago, fits very well into our footprint with our operations that span the area from Hereford in the Panhandle to Orange in Southeast Texas. This reflects our philosophy of continuing to be in community bank, a community bank that doesn't focus on the cities, but the smaller communities around the major metropolitan areas where we are not fighting the big boys, but we have the growth factor coming from the city. This philosophy has worked very well for us, and being spread across the state has created diversity in the types of customers and economies that make up our bank.
This diversity has been very important to us because it's been very important for the consistency of the growth in our earnings, because if one area is down, normally another area is up. I will say, as we grow and continue to purchase other banks, I don't think there's much of a question that we will have to be in some of the major Texas cities. As you see from the map, many of the cities have grown around us, like Southlake and Dallas-Fort Worth and Kingwood and Houston. You know, we're just part of the city. Now I wanna go through our new locations and what we're doing to expand. In our business, we're always updating and improving our locations to meet the needs of the fast-paced, technology-driven customers today.
In February 2021, we held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new location in Huntsville to replace the two buildings we have across the street. This state-of-the-art 8,850-sq-ft building will house all of our Huntsville employees to better serve our customers with the latest in technology. Because of the nationwide supply chain delays, we're several months behind and hope to have this building completed by the end of the third quarter. In April 2021, the company moved its technology training and customer care center into a 52,800 sq ft, newly remodeled operating center in South Abilene. This state-of-the-art building provides the latest in technology, security, safety, connectivity, and audiovisual capabilities while being very energy efficient. We expect this new facility to meet the needs of our growing company for many years.
We are now in the process of leasing the space that the three centers formerly occupied in our corporate headquarters at 400 Pine. We are very excited that the Abilene Chamber of Commerce has taken the vacated fifth floor space for their new home, and we are delighted to have them as a neighbor. In June 2021, First Financial Bank's Bryan/College Station region announced that it had acquired property at 2445 Harvey Mitchell Parkway South. In November 2021, we started construction on a 16,000 sq ft, highly energy-efficient building at that site. This state-of-the-art facility will feature a large lobby, offices for lending, mortgage, trust officers, and five drive-through lanes, and a wider lane designed for large trucks.
We feel that this is one of the best locations in Bryan/College Station, which gives our customers easier access to our people and our services. We hope to move into this building first quarter of 2023. In February 2022, First Financial Bank's Southeast Texas Region announced that it had purchased property in Lumberton and started construction on a 3,300-sq-ft bank building with three motor bank lanes and an ATM lane. Lumberton has an excellent school district and is a fast-growing city 10 miles from Beaumont. We look forward to being part of Lumberton's growth. We anticipate that the completion date for this project will be the fourth quarter of this year.
As you can see, we have made a good number of changes in management, which includes many of our younger professional bankers who are moving up the ladder. Some are to replace retirees or future retirees. Others are to strengthen the management team to fit the growth that we have had and will have as part as well as meet the requirements expected passing a $10 billion bank. Once you get to the $10 billion range, you have a lot more regulatory and just, you know, scrutiny that you've got to have additional people to move on. We are preparing for that.
If you're wondering why I'm spending the time on this because I want you to see what the future of this bank is, because these people are the group that's gonna take our bank, along with the people we have today, to the next level and on down the road. In January 2021, Nora Thompson was promoted President of First Financial Bank, Bryan/College Station region. In July 2021, she gained the additional title of CEO following the retirement of Ivan Olsen, who was President and CEO of the region for 12 years. Nora has more than 30 years' experience in financial services and mortgage lending. Prior to our acquisition of TB&T Bancshares, she was a key part of the leadership team where she served as Executive Vice President and Senior Lender.
She is a graduate of Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at SMU and is the fourth female to be promoted to President in our company. Robert Nickles, in February 2021, was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Kingwood region. Bob has served on the Kingwood region's board of directors since 2010 and on First Financial Bankshares board of directors since 2018. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and is founder and Executive Chairman for Alegacy Group, LLC, the second largest gas compressor packager in the world. In July 2021, Chris Cook was elected Executive Vice President of Advertising and Marketing at First Financial Bank.
Chris spent 22 years at Texas Tech University, first as Associate Athletics Director for communications for 11 years, and then as Senior Director in the Office of the Communications and Marketing of the Office of the President of the university. This was a hard one because the President of the university, Schovanec, is a very good friend of mine. When Chris walked in to tell him that he was coming to work for us, the only thing he said is, "You're going to have a worse boss than you do now." Chris holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from Louisiana Tech University and a Master of Arts degree from Mass Communication School at Texas Tech. Maggie Tuschinski.
In August 21, 2021, the board of directors of First Financial Bank announced the election of Maggie Tuschinski as Executive Vice President, Chief Digital Officer, a newly created position in the company. She has extensive background in product development and user experience and is a liaison between each line of business to promote a consistent experience for our customers across all digital channels. She comes to First Financial Bank with 20 years of experience working in financial services, including 10 years with Fortune 500 company USAA and most recently four years at Frost Bank. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Phoenix. Let me tell you, she has made a huge impact on our digital.
We have continued to advance our digital, which has certainly helped our customers. In October 2021, Chris Baughman was promoted to President and CEO of First Financial Bank Conroe. He succeeded Sam Baker, who retired in March 2022, but Sam will remain as Chairman of the board. Chris has worked for the Conroe region for the past 12 years as Executive Vice President and is the largest producer in loans in that area. He has been in the industry for 39 years and is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin State University and the Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. In November, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. promoted David Bailey to Executive Vice President for Commercial Banking, a newly created position within the company.
In a new role, David will lead the commercial banking line of business, working with each region to grow First Financial's commercial loan portfolio. He also will assist each region in business development, talent management, and will partner with treasury management to grow deposits and fee-based services. David has been with First Financial Bank for 19 years, starting his career as a teller while attending college in Abilene. David is one of the seven people that started at the bank right out of college or in college, moved up our training program, became president of the bank, and continues to move up the ladder. We call it a training program that works. Following graduation, he joined the bank's credit analyst program, advanced through several jobs, became president over Eastland Division, and was named senior lender in Abilene, and now his new position.
He is a graduate of McMurry University and Southwestern Graduate School of Banking. In January 2022, the board of First Financial Bank Fort Worth region elected Vianei Lopez Braun as chair of the board. Vianei has been an advocate for First Financial Bank since we financed her law practice in 1998, and she has served as our employment attorney for 24 years. She leads the labor and employment section for Decker Jones, P.C., a full-service law firm based in Fort Worth. She serves as the chief development officer for the firm. She has practiced employment law for 30 years with previous tenure in Houston and Abilene. She is an honors graduate of Princeton University and earned a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
In January 2022, the board of directors of First Financial Bankshares announced the promotion of Luke Longhofer to Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer upon Gary Gragg's retirement after 30 years. As Chief Credit Officer, Luke had worked in tandem with Gary for 11 years. Luke has played an integral role in the credit oversight of the bank acquisitions, most recently that of The Bank & Trust in Bryan/College Station. He also oversaw the execution of the PPP and Main Street lending programs. He was one of the masterminds for getting so much new business to our bank. He was also instrumental in implementing the adoption of CECL accounting standard. Before joining the bank, he was at the FDIC for more than seven years.
He has had numerous promotions and held numerous positions through the company through those years, and he holds a bachelor's finance degree from West Texas A&M University and he's the valedictorian of his Southwestern Graduate School of Banking class. In addition, at its January 2022 meeting, the board of directors of First Financial Bankshares announced the promotion of Kyle McVey to Executive Vice President Accounting Officer. He joined First Financial Bankshares in 2011, following two years with KPMG. Kyle holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and finance and a master's in accounting from Abilene Christian University. He is a licensed CPA and a graduate of SMU's Graduate School of Banking, where he was also valedictorian of his class.
That's one of the things about SWGSB, is they call it the Abilene Connection, because we've had more valedictorians at SWGSB than any other bank. Tells you the quality of people we hire. In February 2022, the board of First Financial Bank's Southlake region elected Shelby Bruhn as President and CEO of the region, succeeding Mark Jones, who will continue to be Chairman of the board. Shelby recently served as Executive Vice President, Chief Lending Officer for Valliance Bank in Fort Worth. Shelby is a graduate of the University of Texas at Dallas with a bachelor's degree in accounting and information management. He also is a 2017 graduate at Graduate School of Banking at Colorado. In March 2022, First Financial Bankshares, Inc. elected Rett Everett Executive Vice President, Credit Administration.
Rett will be a valued member of the credit administration team with the daily responsibilities of leading oversight in the Dallas-Fort Worth regions. His experience as Chief Credit Officer at the National Bank of Texas in Fort Worth, as well as a 14-year tenure with Capital One in Fort Worth and Dallas, which gives him ample experience for the job. He received a bachelor's degree in business administration and finance from Tarleton State University and a master's degree from Texas Tech University. In April 2022, the board of First Financial Bank Hereford Region elected Jamie Esch as Chairman and CEO of First Financial Bank, Hereford. Jamie is a native of the area, has a 25-year history of working in banking and banks across the country as far as Bank of America and Happy State Bank.
He received a degree in business administration from West Texas State or West Texas A&M University. Please help me thank Ivan Olsen, Sam Baker, Gary Gragg for their long and valued service to our company. We congratulate them on their well-deserved retirements and wish them all best with their new endeavors. First Financial Bankshares embraces and promotes a culture of diversity and inclusion. We continue our efforts to attract, recruit, and retain employees who bring to our company diverse backgrounds, orientation, beliefs, culture, and interest. We believe that having a diverse team strengthens our company by bringing together people with different ideas, skills, experiences, and by enabling all of our customers, regardless of their race or other characteristics, to feel at home when they visit our locations.
We also continue to refresh and diversify our regional and subsidiary boards, which have 35 women and/or minorities as members. As I remind you, these boards are made up of the movers and shakers of each of the communities we serve. As you can see, 72% of our workforce are women and 37% are minorities. We are very proud of the women who have leadership roles in our company. We recently highlighted the importance of female leadership in our company, there they are, with an advertisement of the two women directors and our four women presidents. Since then, we have featured them in videos telling their story. Not only are they first-class professionals who lead and guide our company to new heights every day, they are active leaders within their communities, while also pursuing personal interests and keeping their families a top priority.
These female leaders represent many women that we have across the company, and we plan to highlight more women leaders in the coming months. At the January 2022 Board of Directors meeting, Eli Jones, PhD, was selected as Company's board of directors. Eli also was appointed to the First Financial Bank Board of Directors, and he currently serves on the board of First Financial Bank's Bryan-College Station region. Eli is nationally known academic speaker and author and has worked with major publicly traded companies. He is Professor of Marketing and a Lowry and Peggy Mays Eminent Scholar at Texas A&M University. He recently served for six years as Dean of the Texas A&M's prestigious Mays School of Business, one of the nation's top 20 business programs, preceded by three years as Dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas.
He was recently selected as an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M University. He is a Bryan-College Station native, holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and both a master's and doctorate degree in business administration from Texas A&M. We're delighted to have a new board member of Eli's caliber, experience, and education on our board. Our Lead Director, Tucker S. Bridwell, has decided to retire from the board at this year's annual meeting after 14 years of service. As Lead Director and one of the senior members, Tucker has been instrumental in guiding the company and board to excellence. He recently served on the Executive Committee and the Nominating Governance Committee. In the past, he served on Audit, Compensation, and the Bank Directors Loan Committees. He has served on the Board of Directors of the First Financial Bank of Abilene for 35 years.
Tucker is President of Mansefeldt Investment Corporation, as well as the Dian Graves Owen Foundation. He is a graduate of SMU's Cox School of Business and serves on SMU's Board of Trustees and is a distinguished alumnus from SMU. We are certainly sad to see Tucker retire, but we appreciate the years of leadership and direction that he's given through the years. It has been my immense pleasure to work with him as Lead Director through the years. Tucker, let's give you a round of applause. As you can see from this slide, over the past five years, our annual dividends have increased from $0.38- $0.58, a 52.6% increase.
Due to our outstanding capital position and historical earnings increases, the board has voted to increase our cash dividend by $0.02. Our $0.17 per quarter, which is a 13.3% increase. This will be paid to shareholders of record as of June 16th, 2022, with the dividend payable on July 1st, 2022. We hope you're pleased with this decision. Yeah, I got an email before the meeting and it said, "I think you need to increase the dividend $0.02 this year." Whoever sent that, of course, I made no comment, but you got it. Having achieved the largest growth in the company's history over the last two years, and with it, vigorous momentum, our goal now is to maintain that trajectory and velocity of that momentum.
As we reviewed earlier, I could not be more pleased with the people who have taken on new positions across our company and accepted more responsibilities to support the growth, our growth, now and in the future. Our Horst Schulze training, our mission and vision statements, our 21 non-negotiables have kept our entire team focused on excellence. We will maintain that focus and continue to adhere to our bedrock goals. To provide outstanding and personalized customer service, deliver unparalleled value to our shareholders, enrich the lives of our employees, and create a positive impact on the communities we serve. With the momentum we have, the outlook for First Financial Bankshares is very good. We continue to improve our bottom line by growing loans, deposits, and trust accounts, enhancing non-interest income and controlling expenses.
We're searching diligently to acquire, at the right price, well-managed banks that fit our culture and bring long-term shareholder value to the company. Our accomplishments and strong performance, especially over the last two years, did not just happen on their own, but rather came from the dedication and hard work of a very professional team made up of the board members, officers, employees, of whom I have the honor of working. They continue to go well beyond the call of duty in providing our customers and communities with exceptional service, and I thank each one of them. Thank you also to our shareholders who are so loyal and supportive to our company. Many of you have owned stock for generations, and some of you are recent stockholders. No matter which, never forget that we work to put you first. The 2022 annual meeting of First Financial Bankshares, Inc.
Is now adjourned, and we invite each of you to join us for the famous Perini luncheon in the exhibit hall. When you come out, turn right, we have plenty of buffet tables to serve you quickly. Find a place to sit down. We've got plenty of tables and chairs. If you don't feel comfortable in going through the buffet line and carrying a plate, just go sit down. Our servers will go get you a plate, and they'll take care of you. They're there to serve you. Thank you for coming today, and we look forward to seeing you at the luncheon. We are adjourned.