- Key insight: Old Glory Bank has raised enough capital from investors to restore its status as adequately capitalized.
- What's at stake: The capital raise was forced after a planned merger with a special purpose acquisition company failed to receive the Federal Reserve's approval.
- Expert quote: "We will never bend a knee to the Fed." —Mike Ring, Old Glory''s president and CEO
A conservative-aligned bank has raised $8 million from private investors and says it's now "adequately capitalized," following a pair of negative actions by its regulators.
Mike Ring, Old Glory Bank's president and CEO, said Monday that the bank received a capital injection from roughly 150 investors. Last month, the bank pivoted to a capital raise after the Federal Reserve failed to approve its application to merge with a special purpose acquisition company.
Ring took aim at the central bank Monday for upending the bank's merger deal, saying the Fed did not present a reason for the deal being called off.
"Because of the Federal Reserve's unchecked power to determine which bank holding company deals move forward and which deals don't, we had to return to the private markets and raise the capital we needed," Ring said in a press release. "We will never bend a knee to the Fed."
Ring said he believes the Fed denied the merger because the bank is "pro-crypto," and the Fed is protecting its sovereignty.
"The blockchain gives you decentralized control, and that's exactly opposite of the concept of a central bank," Ring said in an interview with American Banker.
A Fed spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Old Glory, in Elmore City, Oklahoma, received
The bank pitches itself as an "anti-woke alternative" for consumers concerned about government overreach and debanking. Since it launched in 2023, Old Glory has signed up 85,000 personal and business accounts, and its deposits surged from just $10 million in 2023 to $270 million in mid-2026.
But loan growth has not kept pace. As of June 30, less than 10% of the bank's $277 million of assets were loans. The bank has struggled to turn a profit, reporting a loss of nearly $8 million during the first six months of 2026.
Old Glory was co-founded in 2022 by a roster of prominent Republicans, including Dr. Ben Carson; former Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin Christensen and radio/TV host Larry Elder, among others.
Sean Spicer, the former Trump White House press secretary, is an Old Glory board member. He said in the bank's press release Monday that media outlets were quick to report about Old Glory Bank being temporarily undercapitalized, "but they have been very silent as to how the Fed denied" the bank's application to merge with a SPAC.
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Old Glory still intends to go public, but Ring said it will do so as a direct listing from its existing bank holding company. The bank has abandoned its previous plan to merge with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company in order to take the private company public. The deal fell apart after the Fed refused to approve bank holding company status for the entity that would have listed Old Glory Bank on the Nasdaq exchange.
"We still intend to go public, allowing all Americans to be an owner," Ring said in the release. "But we'll do it as a direct listing from our existing bank holding company … so the Fed will not again have approval rights over a new bank holding company."
Investors who participated in the bank's latest capital raise are exempt from registration requirements, according to Ring. Altogether, Old Glory's parent company has raised more than $67 million, all from "Main Street" investors, he said.
