Entrepreneurs answer the need for community banks.
After the bank where he worked was bought out in a merger,
banking executive Michael Kowalski decided to resign. He toyed with
the idea of doing securities sales, financial planning or opening a
CPA practice, but in the end, he decided to go where the money was.
"I realized banking was in my blood," says Kowalski. So
in April, he opened his own bank-TownBank, National Association, in
Mesquite, Texas.
Kowalski is just one of a slew of displaced or disgruntled
bankers who are opening small community banks that specialize in
customer service and appeal to entrepreneurs, says Virginia
Stafford of the American Bankers Association. "These are
bankers who have been in business for years, and a lot of them take
their customer relationships and their colleagues with them to
start these banks," she explains. "They've got
experience and know what they want to achieve."
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Both Kowalski and Stafford believe the emergence of community
banks has larger implications for the banking industry. Because the
majority of the 10,000-some banks in existence are small, the
competition is fierce. And when mergers take place, Stafford notes,
the resulting flux causes local banks to go after the disenchanted
customers left in the merger's wake.
To Kowalski, what's happening in the banking industry
reflects the big picture of business. "Any time you have
consolidation, you have rebirth at the same time," he says.
"As [an industry] consolidates, it creates opportunities for
other individuals-and I think that's part of the normal cycle
of business."
Helping Kowalski see the opportunity open to him were the
shareholders and customers of his former employer, who urged him to
start his own bank. The buyout was tough on the small-business
owners who banked there, says Kowalski. "They had to deal with
more impersonal bankers and more regimented procedures. I came to
see that there was a need for a small independent bank that caters
to small businesses," he explains. "A lot of the big
banks just treat you like a number."-Lynn Beresford
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