We ll focus primarily on attracting professionals, including doctors and attorneys, plus small businesses, like retail and that sort of thing, and other individuals. Spurred by a strong economy, new community banks have popped up as mergers have removed a lot of hometown institutions, said McKinley Mac Deaver, executive director of the Mississippi Bankers Association. An interesting phenomenon that s happening here and around the country is that a lot of new charters are pending, he said. We went for years in Mississippi with just having a new charter once in a blue moon, but now we have several new charters and the ones that are coming on line are doing well. In some cases, the desire of local investors to have a bank based in their own community has been the reason for a new crop of charters.
Local investors pool resources and go through necessary regulatory procedures to get a bank charter.
Page Ogden, president of the Mississippi Bankers Association, said the trend in new charters reflected in Mississippi and nationwide doesn t necessarily reflect significant movement in bank capital formation that focuses on particular professional groups. Recruiting capital using affinity marketing certainly has its appeal, Ogden said. The initial investors supply not only capital but also deposits and loans. This ready-made capital and customer base helps the profitability projections. The challenge for the new startups is to grow beyond their investor base, and that need for growth along many lines within a geographical area may interfere with the starting vision of the original investor group.