HOUSTON, July 19, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- With real estate developer and community partner MetroNational's $500 million redevelopment of Memorial City under way, a group of Memorial City-based business leaders has announced plans to raise funds and seek regulatory approval to open a community bank designed to enhance financial services in the area. If all goes according to plan, MetroNational Bank & Trust (in organization) will open its main branch in early 2006 at the southeast corner of Memorial City Way and the I-10 frontage road, next to Memorial City Mall, as well as a small location inside the mall that will feature limited banking services, including an ATM.
According to the business group, the development of MetroNational Bank & Trust involves a melding of two key strategies: targeting a geographic market as well as serving the local businesses, service providers and executives. "Between the two locations, we plan to offer the full array of financial services that customers come to expect from a community bank, but with an emphasis on the largest part of the Memorial City market -- retail," said Michael Roy who has more than 15 years experience in Houston banking and will serve as the bank's president and CEO. "The recent renovation of Memorial City Mall and the upcoming construction of residential units, a lifestyle district, luxury hotel, new restaurants and additional retail make Memorial City ripe for a lending institution that caters to the retail business owner and consumer."
As a senior VP, general counsel and secretary from 1989 to 2001 for Charter Bank and later Sterling Bank, Roy oversaw legal and corporate affairs, including mergers and acquisitions, directed compliance and risk management departments, and developed and managed budgets, among other key responsibilities. In March 2001, he founded The Right Bank for Texas, N.A., a Houston community bank with approximately $100 million in total assets, serving as its CEO through January 2005.
Roy notes that for a start-up community banks such as MetroNational Bank & Trust, which will be locally owned and focused, it is critical to tap the consumer market in its core geographic area. "You're not going to draw new business if you're not conveniently located. With the heavy consumer traffic already flowing through Memorial City, we have a chance to fulfill the need for convenient, quality banking services by situating ourselves near and inside Memorial City Mall."
The organizers of MetroNational Bank & Trust plan to file an application for a national bank charter within the next few days in hopes of obtaining regulatory approval to be open for business in the first quarter of 2006. They have received capital commitments for $12 million from local investors and plan on raising additional capital from the local community, with the goal of raising as much as $20 million.