Aug. 11--Pending regulatory approval, Bend could soon be home to a new nationally chartered bank.

A group of investors led by Sisters resident Elijah Aldinger has proposed creating a full-service commercial bank that would be headquartered in downtown Bend with a branch in Portland. The proposed bank, which would be called Crown Point National Bank, would specialize in servicing the banking needs of small businesses, said the bank's president and CEO, Andrew Gerlicher.

"This is a great place to open a bank," Gerlicher said. "People are discovering Bend, have been and continue to, and the opportunities are real and, we think, dependable."

Gerlicher said the bank has 43 founders who have pooled more than $4 million to fund the bank's organization, and that additional capital would likely come from a public stock offering sometime after the bank gains regulatory approval. Gerlicher estimates the bank will open by the first quarter of 2009.

Despite the current economic climate, Gerlicher said, it's a great time to open a bank. While many banks have slashed their lending in the wake of the housing and credit fallout, falling real estate prices have created demand for loans, which presents opportunities for banks with clean balance sheets, he said.

Gerlicher said the bank is not being created to take advantage of the current situation but because it believes in the long-term potential of the Bend and Portland markets.

"The things we're hearing in the news are temporary things ... cycles tend to work their way through issues, so you really want to look beyond that and not hang the whole prospectus of the enterprise on a point of time," Gerlicher said. "It's the overall demographic changes, the continued growth and the people moving in, and, really, in Oregon in general. The same trends can be seen in the Portland market, so this is a long-term business that has a long-term view."

The bank has applied for a national charter with the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which requires the applicant to include the word "national" in its name or the abbreviated suffix "N.A.," which stands for "national association." Banks without a federal charter are chartered by states.

Gerlicher, an attorney with 25 years of experience working for Umpqua Bank, West Coast Trust Co. and First Interstate Bank, said the bank chose a national charter partly due to his and other Crown Point executives' experience in dealing with federal regulatory agencies.

Gerlicher said the differences between federally chartered and state-chartered banks are small.

The bank's headquarters will be in the former Washington Mutual Home Loan Center in downtown Bend, at 956 N.W. Bond St. Washington Mutual closed its home loan centers across the country in March, according to Darcy Donahoe-Wilmot, vice president of national public relations, Northwest bureau, for Washington Mutual.

Renovations on the bank's future home, at the corner of Bond Street and Oregon Avenue, are under way. Gerlicher said dedication to customer service and a community bank mentality will attract customers in a crowded field of banks downtown.

"Local businesses, I've found, prefer to work with people who they can get in touch with in person and who can give them the immediate, intelligent response to their requests," Gerlicher said. "We're going to hire experienced and seasoned bankers, and help these businesses get that level of personal service, to be able to talk to someone on the other end of the line."

Though it plans to specialize in small-business banking, Crown Point also will offer home and personal loans, and checking and savings accounts, and its deposits will be secured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Gerlicher said.

The bank expects to finalize a Portland location in coming months.

Should it be approved, Crown Point will join the Bank of the Cascades, founded in 1977, and High Desert Bank, founded in 2007, as the only banks with headquarters in Bend.

Linda Navarro, president and CEO of the Oregon Bankers Association, isn't surprised a new bank is opening in Bend. The region's demographics make the area attractive, and speak to the fact that there's a strong future for community banking in Bend and elsewhere, she said.

"Banks continue to provide viable services to their communities ... and even with consolidation in the banking industry, new banks continue to organize because there is a place for community banks, especially in local communities where management and employees are centralized in the community," Navarro said. "They truly embody the definition of serving and growing a community."

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Story Source: The Bulletin