Another new bank is in the works in North Carolina.
A group led by William Long, former CEO of Yadkin Valley Financial, would open Spirit Community Bank in Statesville, which is about 45 miles north of Charlotte. Organizers have filed applications with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks.
This is the first major banking endeavor for Long since he retired from Yadkin Valley in July 2011. Long was Yadkin’s CEO for nine years; he joined the company after it bought Piedmont Bank, which he helped found.
“North Carolina has experienced a wave of industry consolidation leaving a void in the community banking market," Long, who would be the proposed bank's president and CEO, said in a press release Monday. "Almost nine years have passed since a new bank was formed in North Carolina. Since that time, the number of locally based small community banks ... has declined drastically."
The venture could be the state’s first de novo bank since Coastal Bank & Trust opened in 2009.
Another group, led by local homebuilder David Cuthbertson,
Randy Helton, former CEO of American Community Bancshares, is advising the Monroe group. American Community was sold to Yadkin in 2009 when Long was CEO.
Yadkin
