NewDominion in N.C. Gets Closer to Shedding Enforcement Order

NewDominion Bank in Charlotte, N.C., believes it is close to raising enough capital to shed a consent order.

The bank has received commitments for nearly 80% of the $10 million it must raise to shed a 2010 order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, according to Friday’s online edition of the Charlotte Business Journal. Raising capital is the final requirement that the bank has to meet under the consent order.

If the bank raises the $10 million, it will be able to use deferred-tax assets to raise its Tier 1 capital ratio to 8%, the level mandated by the FDIC order. John Hipp, the bank’s chief executive, told the Charlotte Business Journal that he hopes to complete the capital raise in “two or three more weeks.” None of the nearly $8 million in commitments has come from institutional investors or private equity, he said.

American Banker was unable to reach Hipp for further comment.

Hipp succeeded Bradley Thompson as CEO in November 2010, a month after regulators hit the bank with the enforcement action. Hipp had earned a reputation for turning around troubled banks as CEO of two South Carolina lenders in the 1990s.