Local Executives to Start Commercial Bank – Virginia Business Bank Seeking Investors Throughout State
Richmond, Virginia (May 9, 2005) - A group of Richmond bank executives has joined together with local and regional investors to organize and operate a new bank dedicated primarily to the lending and service needs of small and mid-sized businesses in Central Virginia. Virginia Business Bank will focus in particular on commercial customers whose borrowing needs for real estate development and investment, business expansion, private investment, and business acquisition are in the $1 million to $5 million range.
Virginia Business Bank will be the only Richmond area bank dedicated primarily to serving this target market. It will be able to offer commercial clients advantages over both smaller retail banks and large, full-service banks in overall service, lending options, and loan processing.
“We see a market opportunity at our target lending level that will address the needs of businesses that have found themselves less well served following the mega-banking mergers and acquisitions of the last decade,” says Merlin A. Henkel, Virginia Business Bank's president and chief executive officer, who was formerly president and CEO of Regency Bank in Richmond and more recently was regional president of Resource Bank, a subsidiary of Fulton Financial. “At the same time, we will have a lending capacity business customers can't find at the small, retail-oriented banks.”
Virginia Business Bank's focus does not require a conventional branch-office network. Normal bank teller services will be offered at the main office located at Stony Point II Office Building, and accounts will be serviced by relationship managers who will, in effect, make house calls to the client's place of business. Additionally, commercial deposit clients will be served by couriers and the bank's state-of-the-art Internet banking services. Future growth may include the establishment of additional commercial banking offices.
“We will emphasize one-to-one relationships, something we have already with many of our prospective customers,” says Thomas L. Hotchkiss, executive vice president of Virginia Business Bank and formerly an executive with BB&T and Signet Bank in Richmond. “The experience and sophistication of our management team already is familiar to many of the business people we will serve.”
In addition to Henkel and Hotchkiss, Virginia Business Bank's board of directors includes Donald O. Allen, Warner L. Blunt, III, Freddy J. Cobb, John W. Fain, Theodore S. Hanson, Susan Q. Hogg, Mark J. Hourigan, Frank B. Miller, III, and Peter J. Quinn, Jr.
The bank, which has already raised over $6 million in start-up capital from its organizing investors, is seeking additional investors and plans to spend the next several months raising an additional $12 -20 million. This level of initial capital is roughly double the amount of most start-up banks and will significantly enhance the bank's lending capacity. Following capital acquisition and regulatory approvals, the bank anticipates opening for business in late 2005.
“These are exciting times for this part of Virginia in terms of economic development, and Virginia Business Bank is well postured to participate in the expansion efforts,” says Henkel.
Virginia Business Bank will be a state charted institution offering term loans, acquisition and equipment loans, and both business and personal credit card accounts and lines of credit for its commercial customers. Deposit products including savings accounts, money-market accounts and certificates of deposit will also be offered. The bank will be a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). For more information, please visit www.vabusinessbank.com.
Annual Percentage Yields
Virginia Business Bank offers attractive APYs. Click below to view our current rates.
Business Rates
Personal Rates
| PRIVACY POLICY | VIRGINIA BUSINESS BANK MEMBER, FDIC | © 2006 VIRGINIA BUSINESS BANK |  |