- Forward look: Organizers of the planned Georgia Skyline Bank see an opportunity north of Atlanta, where consolidation has significantly thinned the ranks of local community banks.
- Expert Quote: "Two hundred community banks have vanished," said Ryan Floyd, president of the planned Georgia Skyline Bank.
- Key insight: The $3.1 billion-asset Colony Bancorp has agreed to partner with Georgia Skyline in a bid to level the playing field and allow the new bank to compete more effectively for larger loans that would otherwise exceed its lending limit.
When veteran Georgia banker Ryan Floyd looks at the suburban communities north of Atlanta, he sees opportunity. Flourishing towns like Roswell, Alpharetta, Marietta and Sandy Spring that once were served by dozens of community banks now count only a handful of locally headquartered institutions.
In 2010, several years after Floyd began his career, Georgia was home to nearly 340 banks, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Today, the number has dropped below 140.
"Two hundred community banks have vanished," Floyd told American Banker.
That statistic, along with his desire to remain in the community banking sector, explains why Floyd is helping to lead a group organizing a de novo bank in Roswell. The planned Georgia Skyline Bank would be among the first to open in North Fulton County in more than a decade.
Floyd, who will serve as the bank's president, is counting on that scarcity to propel Georgia Skyline's growth.
"With limited competition from community banks in these high-growth markets, we see a clear opportunity," Floyd said.
Indeed, Roswell, a city with nearly 100,000 residents and a median household income topping $120,000, has no locally based banks. The similarly sized Alpharetta — where Georgia Skyline also plans to do business — has just one bank, according to the FDIC.
Georgia Skyline is attempting to raise $35 million. Investor response has been "tremendous so far," Floyd said. He added that he's "cautiously optimistic" Georgia Skyline will complete the startup capital raise by the end of the year, paving the way to open in early February.
Steve Crowell, who previously served as chief executive officer at both the $306 million-asset United National Bank in Cairo, Georgia, and the $190 million-asset Embassy National Bank in Lawrenceville, Georgia, will fill the same role at Georgia Skyline.
Another veteran Georgia banker, Nick Marsit, will serve as chief credit officer and chief risk officer. Floyd worked as a loan officer at The Piedmont Bank in Peachtree, Georgia, prior to its
Monty Watson, The Piedmont Bank's chairman and CEO, went to work for United, as did nearly 150 other Piedmont employees.
Watson now serves as United's Georgia regional president. Floyd, who considers Watson a mentor, opted to strike out on his own.
"I knew I would not be comfortable" working for a $33 billion-asset regional company, Floyd said. "I've been a community banker my whole career."
Georgia Skyline's strategy out of the gates will be straightforward, Floyd said. Its bankers plan to leverage their local-market knowledge and ability to make decisions rapidly to serve small and medium-sized businesses — and capture a significant share of Roswell and Alpharetta's $11 billion deposit market.
Business owners "don't have the luxury of waiting 50 days" for a bank to underwrite a loan application, Floyd said. "They need someone who can respond. Someone who can make a decision."
"The [community bank] model isn't broken," Floyd said. "People still want to look eye-to-eye at their banker." Georgia Skyline has assembled a group of well-known and well-respected local business and community leaders to serve on its board of directors, according to Floyd.
One director who isn't local, Heath Fountain, is the CEO at the $3.1 billion-asset Colony Bancorp in Fitzgerald, Georgia. Fountain brings with him plenty of community banking experience. Just as importantly, perhaps, Colony has agreed to partner with Georgia Skyline, participating in deals the new bank isn't able to close on its own.
"We do look forward to this," Fountain told American Banker. "It's a great market opportunity in a fast-growing part of Atlanta that's underserved by community banks."
A collaboration with Colony should help level the playing field, permitting Georgia Skyline, whose legal lending limit will start at roughly $6.5 million, to compete against bigger banks for larger loans. For Colony, the arrangement will yield vital market intelligence to guide future expansion, Fountain said.
"We're in the Atlanta market, just not in that particular area," Fountain said. "We're going to grow in Atlanta. Serving on the board will give me a lot more color and understanding … of some of the dynamics of the Atlanta market."
"It's a good model. You've seen some banks do it, just not very often," Fountain added, referring to partnerships between a more established bank and a new entrant. "I can help them navigate some things as they grow, and at the same time benefit Colony. … I think other larger community banks ought to look at that as an opportunity."
While de novo bank activity has slowed the past two years, there are signs that the pace of new bank formation may be picking up. A group in Winter Park, Florida,
