A tiny Washington thrift targeting African-Americans has made a deal to open branches in Wal-Mart stores.
Dwight L. Bush, the $22 million-asset Urban Trust Bank's president and chief executive, said the thrift plans to open several in-store branches this year in the Washington area, as well as in Orlando, where it has one branch.
Urban Thrift, formerly known as Metro Bank, was bought last year by an investor group led by Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television Inc., which he later sold for $3 billion. The group moved the thrift from Orlando to Bethesda, Md., opened a branch in Washington, and renamed it Urban Trust Bank.
Mr. Bush said that Urban Trust has an agreement with the Office of Thrift Supervision to build in its current markets first, but that he ultimately would like to open branches - both in-store and stand-alone ones - in other cities along the Eastern Seaboard with high concentrations of African-Americans.
Urban Trust plans to open three to four stand-alone branches in Washington and Orlando this year, he said.
