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An organizing group appealed the decision of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC's) licensing division, Bank Organization Structure (BOS), to deny their application to establish a de novo chartered bank.
The organizing group expressed concern and disagreement with several reasons provided in the denial letter as the basis for denying the charter application. The group's appeal primarily focused on:
While all concerns in the appeal were investigated and discussed with the appropriate parties, the ombudsman decided that opining on the propriety of the comments presented in the denial letter would not lead to a decision on whether a charter should be granted. The ombudsman determined the best approach to resolve this appeal would be to independently assess the information in the BOS application file and make a determination on the merits of the information as to whether the charter should be granted.
After reviewing the information, the ombudsman applied the criteria outlined in the regulation established for the purpose of providing guidance on granting bank charters to organizers of a proposed bank. 12 CFR 5.20, "Organizing a bank," is explicit in outlining the importance of the operating plan on the OCC's decision to grant a national charter. Specifically:
12 CFR 5.20(h) Operating plan-
(1) General. (I) Organizers of a proposed national bank shall submit an operating plan that adequately addresses the statutory and policy considerations set forth in paragraphs (e) and (f)(2) of this section. The plan must reflect sound banking principles and demonstrate realistic assessment of risk in light of economic and competitive conditions in the market to be served. (ii) The OCC may offset deficiencies in one factor by strengths in one or more other factors. However, deficiencies in some factors, such as unrealistic earnings prospects, may have a negative influence on the evaluation of other factors, such as capital adequacy, or may be serious enough by themselves to result in denial. The OCC considers inadequacies in an operating plan to reflect negatively on the organizing group's ability to operate a successful bank.
The group's operating plan contained inconsistencies and assumptions that were not adequately explained. As an example, it was difficult to understand how the proposed institution would achieve deposit growth of 4 percent per year when the entire market had only experienced average growth of 1 percent in the four years presented in their deposit analysis. Additionally, a market penetration strategy that assumed the bank could pay less than market rate on deposits, when other banking professionals interviewed indicated deposits in that area were rate sensitive, did not appear realistic.
While the group was convinced that there was a need for a locally owned bank, they did not submit an operating plan that demonstrated the proposed bank could reasonably be expected to achieve and maintain profitability. The other issues discussed in the denial letter by themselves were not insurmountable had the operating plan been sound. While those issues did not form the basis for the ombudsman's decision, they offered no support to warrant granting a charter to the organizing group. In considering whether any factors were present to mitigate the weaknesses in the operating plan, the ombudsman determined there were no other factors to offset weaknesses of the plan. Therefore, the ombudsman upheld the denial of the charter, based on the poor operating plan.
