Gateway First Bank

Gateway First Bank

Gateway First Bank took its current form in 2019 when a group led by Stephen Curry acquired Farmers Exchange Bank of Cherokee, Oklahoma — a century-old state-chartered institution — and merged it with Gateway Mortgage Group, the mortgage origination platform Curry had built since 2000. The combined entity received a federal thrift charter, allowing it to operate banking and mortgage lending under one roof across the United States. Headquartered in Jenks, Oklahoma, the firm now runs more than 100 mortgage centers nationwide, servicing a portfolio that public records peg above $35 billion. The firm operates what it describes as a community-bank-plus model: a traditional deposit-and-lending operation on one side, and a high-volume mortgage origination and servicing business on the other. Asset classes span residential mortgage origination, mortgage servicing rights, community-bank loan portfolios, and select commercial real estate lending. Gateway funds roughly $7 billion to $8 billion in mortgage loans annually, according to industry publications tracking Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. It maintains a dual revenue stream — net interest income from the bank and fee income from mortgage production and servicing — that sets it apart from pure-play nonbank originators like Rocket Mortgage or United Wholesale Mortgage, which lack a deposit base. Gateway employs roughly 1,700 people across its banking and mortgage operations, with a physical footprint extending from Oklahoma into Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, and Colorado. In August 2023, the firm announced it had rebranded its mortgage division to Gateway Mortgage, unifying the name across all channels. Stephen Curry remains CEO, and in 2022 the firm converted selected mortgage centers into full-service bank branches, signaling an ambition to grow the deposit side beyond its Oklahoma core. Structurally, Gateway is unusual: a federally chartered bank whose balance sheet is dominated not by commercial loans but by mortgage servicing rights and residential production. That creates a different liquidity and capital profile than a typical community bank, with revenue tied heavily to rate cycles and housing turnover. The thrift charter — less common since the Dodd-Frank Act — gives it preemption advantages in lending across state lines without needing dozens of individual state licenses, a structural edge that nonbank mortgage lenders lack.