Ken McCarthy

Dorothy Savarese will remain the Massachusetts bank's chairman and CEO.

The company could raise as much as $158 million by selling shares to the public.

A second activist investor is pushing the company's board to find a buyer.

The transition to Stein from Hadley Robbins is the result of a multiyear succession process, the Tacoma, Wash., company said. Robbins had succeeded the late Melanie Dressel.

Gulf Capital Bank has received conditional approval from state and federal officials and could be up and running late this year or early next year, its organizers say.

Ernest Pinner, who co-founded the Florida company in 1999, will become non-executive chairman in January.

Regulators may be willing to grant new charters, but economic uncertainties, capital hurdles and inexperience have led the organizers of numerous bank startups to give up in the last few years.

The Maryland company says two recent deals, including its agreement to buy Revere Bank, give it the right amount of coverage across Washington's suburbs.

The decision to bring in Michael Doyle follows a quarter where the South Dakota company reported a spike in net charge-offs.

JWTT, created by former Wedbush Securities bankers, says it will use its connections to court business from other investment banks that were recently sold.