Independent Banker - March 2021 - 69

Tailor-made banking
Craft Bank, Atlanta's first de novo bank in more than a decade, was about to open-and then the
pandemic arrived. Now open, it promises to give potential customers the ability to craft their banking
experience. By Margaret Littman
tlanta hadn't seen a new community
bank open in more than a
decade. The dearth of de novos applies
statewide, too, with just four new
banks opening in the state of Georgia
in the past decade. Now, however, the
drought is over.
Craft Bank, based in Atlanta,
opened on Oct. 15, 2020, after a
process Ross Mynatt, president and
CEO, describes as the most difficult
of his career. While organizing a
new bank may not be an easy task at
the best of times, doing it during a
global pandemic limited the group's
fundraising tactics and made it harder
to recruit organizers. Mynatt says it
wasn't possible to apply the brakes
mid-ride, however, as they were
already working with consultants
and attorneys. At the point shutdown
orders began, he says, " There was no
Plan B. "
But the team believed there was
room for a local de novo bank in
the area. When doing their initial
research, Craft Bank staff analyzed
Atlanta ZIP codes. Where there were
community banks, those community
A
banks did well. They had healthy
market share even when competing
against national banks that had found
success in neighboring ZIP codes.
Mynatt, who had worked at other
community banks in the area, was
convinced there was opportunity.
Plus, there was demand for local
banking. Before the Great Recession,
there were 27 community banks
inside the perimeter of Atlanta's
Interstate 285. When Mynatt and his
team started their process in early
2019, there were just five.
" Atlanta has only gotten bigger, and
there are more people, " he says, " yet
those numbers went from 27 to five. "
Name:
Craft Bank
Location:
Atlanta
Raising capital virtually
The Craft Bank team started their
work in early 2019, and then the
world turned upside down when
the pandemic hit in early 2020. It
required the group of bankers to think
creatively about how to surmount
newly raised roadblocks.
For example, the small initial
staff reduced their payroll and cut
other expenses to make more funds
available for the launch process.
Fundraising was another challenge.
When it became clear that a large
in-person event at a country club-the
old way of soliciting investment-
was a nonstarter due to lockdown
restrictions, the Craft Bank team
shifted gears. Capital-raising events
became virtual.
" It was a challenge to stay positive, "
" Because everyone
is local, we can make
that decision or craft
that proposal very
quickly. We do not
need to explain to
someone else what
Piedmont Park is. "
-ROSS MYNATT, CRAFT BANK
Mynatt says, " but that did not mean
that we did not believe in ourselves. "
As the stock market and the
pandemic recession went through
cycles, so did the ability to fundraise.
" We hit a lot of plateaus, " he
says, noting that there were pauses
at the $7 million, $13 million and
$17 million levels until the Craft
Bank team reached its $20 million
goal thanks to approximately 200
investors. " It felt like we were stuck at
[$17 million] forever. "
Craft banking
Despite the challenges and the
delayed opening, Mynatt believes
that the community bank and its
mission are well suited to current
circumstances. Craft Bank's one
physical location doesn't have
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