Magazine : Archives : 4th Quarter 2022

The New Bank Builders

Opening a new bank used to be commonplace; now it is borderline crazy. The Great Recession created a rift in the operating and regulatory environment: New banks no longer form at a rate fast enough to offset the number of institutions that disappear. More than 1,000 traditional community bank de novos, or start-up banks, opened between 2000 and 2008, according to a 2016 paper from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Since 2010, that number has totaled fewer than 100, according to research from the website Banking Strategist, using FDIC data. The lack of new banks has contributed to the decline...