Sunrise over Tulsa, OK

OCB Logo & Artwork

Our logo and artwork are special to us.  Find out why.

That tree means something.  It represents the "Wall Street Buttonwood Tree."  The story behind it goes something like this:

In response to the financial panic of 1792, a couple dozen businessmen met under a Buttonwood (or sycamore) tree located on Wall Street.  There, they signed the Buttonwood Agreement on May 17,1792, and basically started our current global financial markets.  The Agreement was genius in its simplicity.  It contained two simple provisions:

  1. The signing brokers dealt only with each other.
  2. No matter what, clients were charged 0.25% per transaction.  

Of course the wording was a little more formal:

"We the Subscribers, Brokers for the Purchase and Sale of the Public Stock, do hereby solemnly promise and pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not buy or sell from this day for any person whatsoever, any kind of Public Stock, at a less rate than one quarter percent Commission on the Specie value and that we will give preference to each other in our Negotiations. In Testimony whereof we have set our hands this 17th day of May at New York, 1792."1

After the Panic, which created the country's first bank bailout, people were skeptical of making trades.  The Agreement solved this problem.

"By limiting access and closing the system to outside agents and auctioneers, the participants created a high trust environment where trades and payments would be honored, and investments were legitimate.  To this day, finance is the only business in the world where you can make a multi-billion dollar transaction on a handshake."2

Now that's impressive!  So impressive, that 230 years later, a single Buttonwood tree stands in front of the New York Stock Exchange (and in our logo) in honor of the great Buttonwood Agreement.   


Read more about the Buttonwood Tree and the Buttonwood Agreement on the following websites: 

Wikipedia Buttonwood Agreement article

2 The Wall Street Experience Blog

We are proud to exhibit photography by Douglas Henderson on our website and in our main office in South Tulsa.    Doug is an old friend of our President and an amazing photographer.  When we decided to update the artwork in our main office, we wanted to remind everyone that this bank is still local:  born and bred in Tulsa, Ok.   We serve this town and this state faithfully and to the best of our ability.  We are proud to be in Tulsa, and we wanted our artwork to show it.  With that thought in mind, we asked Doug for some "iconic pictures of Tulsa."  And boy, did he deliver!


The following is from Doug's website:

Henderson is one of Oklahoma's most prolific photographers. His work is on permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian Institute, has been exhibited at the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Oklahoma State Capitol, Kuonaafrika in Antwerp, Belgium and in Havana, Cuba. A professional photographer for the past 34 years he has worked in the Amazon Basin, the Galapagos Islands, Uganda, the Yucatan, Senegal, South Africa, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Romania, the Gambia, Columbia, Cuba, Belgium and the USA.
 
 
Drop by our office to see more of Doug's beautiful images!