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Patrick Adams has worked in Texas banking more than 20
years, including holding executive positions at Addison National
Bank, Eagle National Bank and Bent Tree National Bank. But
when he decided to start his own bank he turned to California
consultant Dan Hudson and his company, Bankmark, for help.
"Starting any kind of a business is a big job, and starting a bank
in a heavily regulated industry is that much bigger of a job." said
Adams, who hopes, with his partner Dan Basso, to open T Bank
N.A. along the Dallas North Tollway in late first-quarter 2004.
"Having someone who has done this successfully before helps
give you confidence that you're going to he successful."
Adams filed his application in September with the Office of
the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington, D.C., to charter
his national bank. He hopes to raise between $l2 million and
$14 million from more than 500 North Texas investors and plans
to open two branches along the toll-way simultaneously.
"What Dan (Hudson) brings to the table is a soup-to-nuts
approach to chartering a bank," said Peter Weinstock, financial
institutions practice group leader at Jenkens & Gilchrist P.C. in
Dallas. "There are people who are very good at running a bank,
but that skill set doesn't necessarily translate into knowing
how to get a bank open."
Hudson, CEO of San Luis Obispo, California-based Bankmark, has
helped open 125 de novo, or new, banks in California, New York,
Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey and Nevada since 1982. Twentyyear-old
Bankmark provides legal and regulatory counsel, helps
recruit a board of directors and management team, develops
financial products and technology and organizes capital-raising
activities for a fee of roughly 4.9% of the bank's capital.
Bankmark has engaged three investor groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth
area and has 38 solid inquiries from other groups
around Texas, said Hudson.
"Many of the management people in Texas have worked for a
bank that was tightly held and controlled by a single individual,
and I think they are worn out on that proposition," he said.
Hudson started his company as a marketing specialist. He shifted
to bank start up consulting, he said, after working with a California
banker and realizing the importance of capital acquisition.
"If you could sell the stock to people who would actually
use the bank," Hudson said, "it was our premise that the bank
would perform better."
Bryan Hyzdu and his partners were researching the viability
of starting their own bank in Stockton, Calif., in 1998 when
Hyzdu was introduced to Hudson.
Stockton's population was about 250,000 at the time. The city
had four competitive local independent banks along with all
the major institutions, Hyzdu said.
"None of us had (started a bank) before, and we wanted
to get it right the first time," he said. "We decided to go with
Bankmark because it was the only turnkey operation he found
where all the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit together."
Hyzdu's Service 1st Bank got its state charter Nov. 10 1999,
with $12 million raised from almost 700 shareholders and now
has more than $100 million.
"I like the model," said Weinstock of Bankmark's strategy
for starting banks as publicly traded. Securities and Exchange
Commission-registered entities, rather than the privately held
institutions more common in Texas.
Hudson's model usually calls for opening two branches initially,
one in a deposit-rich market, and one in an asset-rich area.
With just two ZIP codes along the Dallas North Tollway
containing approximately $4 billion in deposits, Hudson said T
Bank should have no problem finding investors or customers.
And as one of the nation's five richest deport markets, Hudson
said Texas could support 20 new charters in the next two years.
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