Our History
How It All Began
Kendrick Services began in the summer of 1990—but bank internal auditing had long been part of Bryan Kendrick’s story.
Bryan began his career in 1976, right out of college, at a small community bank in Canyon, TX. Those early years were spent learning not only auditing, but banking itself—an education that would shape the rest of his career.
After three years, Bryan was recruited by the Cullen/Frost organization in San Antonio to lead the internal audit function for two of its holding company banks. Within a year, he was moved to corporate headquarters at Frost Bank, where he managed both the Financial/Operational and Trust audit divisions.
While his early years built a strong foundation in banking, his time at Frost sharpened his understanding of risk—how to identify it, evaluate it, and design effective audit techniques to address it.
In 1984, Bryan accepted a position with San Antonio Savings (SASA), then the largest thrift in South Texas, to establish and oversee their internal audit function. But by 1990, a depressed real estate market and struggling economy forced many financial institutions to close or merge under regulatory pressure—SASA among them.
A Defining Decision
That same year, Bryan was presented with two very different opportunities.
One was with the largest mortgage banking company in the world, headquartered in Dallas, servicing a $40 billion portfolio, and a large established internal audit staff. After multiple visits and meetings with executive leadership and the board, he received a highly lucrative offer—complete with salary, benefits, and long-term security.
The other opportunity was far less glamorous: a small community bank in Laredo needed someone to oversee its two-person internal audit staff on an outsourced basis—40 hours per month at $50 an hour.
Downtown Dallas or downtown Laredo?
Prestige and security—or uncertainty and independence?
The decision was anything but simple. Bryan had five young children, had liquidated his savings and retirement, and had reached the end of his unemployment benefits. Yet deep within him was a vision: to take the experience he had gained in bank internal auditing and package it in an affordable way for financial institutions of all sizes.
In 1990, outsourcing internal audit services was not common in the banking world. But one small bank in Laredo was willing to try.
Bryan took the leap of faith—and Kendrick Services was born.
Growing the Vision
What began with one client and one person has grown into a team of fifteen serving financial institutions all across Texas and beyond.
Today, Kendrick Services specializes in:
Operational (Internal Control) Audits
Information Technology (IT) Audits
Regulatory Compliance Audits
Loan Review
Other Specialized Internal Audits
The vision that birthed Kendrick Services remains the same:
To provide financial institutions the depth of experience they need—at an affordable price—while serving with integrity, diligence, and purpose.