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Charles Stuart is the director of commercial banking at Fidelity Bank. He joined Fidelity in 2022 as Tulsa market president.

A veteran banker with more than three decades of experience is leading the commercial division of Fidelity Bank.

Charles Stuart joined Fidelity in 2022 as Tulsa market president, where he oversaw the development of Fidelity's emerging presence.

Stuart is the director of commercial banking for Fidelity's markets in Wichita, Kansas City, Tulsa and Oklahoma City in the role he has held since August. Until last week, he was splitting his work week between Wichita and Tulsa, where he continues to serve as Oklahoma Fidelity market president until he eventually transitions out of the role.

Stuart succeeds Jesse West, who served as director of commercial banking since 2021. West left Fidelity in January to move back to Kansas City and pursue other opportunities, said Katie Grover, marketing director at Fidelity Bank.

Fidelity is the third-largest bank by market share in the Wichita area, with more than $2 billion in local deposits according to the WBJ's most recent data.

Hailing from Amarillo, Stuart is a minister by education who worked for a church before becoming a banker. He worked in investment brokerage for a Texas bank that underwent a series of mergers and acquisitions, changing names five times in seven years, Stuart said. The bank was eventually acquired by Bank of America, a move that made Stuart's role redundant and led to his foray into commercial banking.

"For the first 10 years of my career, I ran a brokerage group that covered pretty much the whole state of Texas," he said.

Stuart thought he would work in an investment group for the rest of his life, he said.

"Then in the '80s and '90s, you had a lot of bank mergers, sales. . . That's when I transitioned into the commercial-lending piece of the equation," he said.

Stuart stayed with Bank of America for several years before going to work for JPMorganChase, which brought him to Tulsa.

"I think it speaks to Wichita that somebody like Charles would want to come and finish his career in the city," Grover said. "(Somebody) that has lived in Texas, Oklahoma, and in big cities in those states."

Fidelity acquired Yorktown Bank in 2021 and expanded its footprint into Tulsa, where it operates as Oklahoma Fidelity Bank. As market president for Tulsa, Stuart led the bank's growth in a newly established market.

"Now I have the opportunity to raise something up much larger than just the Tulsa market," Stuart said.

Unlike in Tulsa, the commercial banking environment in Wichita is still ruled by family-owned institutions rather than national banking chains, he said.

"Wichita is unique in that it's not really what I'd consider over-banked. You've got local institutions, for the most part, that kind of dominate the landscape," Stuart said.

That dynamic lends itself to healthy competition among familiar faces, he said.

"We pretty much know how these other banks like to structure deals, and they pretty much know how we like to structure deals," he said. "When you're dealing with larger banks, you don't ever have any idea... It's more dynamic with just a handful of banks."

Stuart said he'll still be back and forth some between Wichita and Tulsa, but intends to spend around 85% of his time in Wichita.

"Tulsa market president will not be a long-term title" for Stuart, Grover said. "We will be seeking someone to transition into that position when the time is right."

Fidelity's commercial portfolio includes the aerospace industry in Wichita and homebuilders in all four of the markets Stuart oversees, but the local business sector is the bread and butter of Fidelity's commercial banking, Stuart said.

"Even though we deal with large clients, we're really about the mom-and-pops to a large extent, or the locally owned companies," he said. "If you looked at our portfolio across all platforms, that's kind of where we focus, where we operate best."