OakStar Bank breaks into market

Right now CEO and President James Bracht calls it, “a bank in a box.”

The new banking facility, set to open Nov. 7, is currently housed in a modular building at 1020 E. Battlefield, but work should be under way on a permanent facility in early 2006.

A group of about 40 investors has put up $10 million in capital to fund the nationally chartered bank’s beginning. While Bracht declined to name the investors, he said they represent a wide variety of businesspeople.

“We wanted an investor base that could really give us guidance and input into what the community needs,” he said. “We have everyone from young successful entrepreneurs to senior statesmen in the business world, male (and) female. We have no more than one individual out of any manufacturing or business entity. That diversity was by design.”

The bank’s focus is on businesses – Bracht said it’s too difficult to make a dent in the retail banking market without multiple locations and a large market presence.

Bracht said he has heard rumblings about OakStar – another new bank in an already crowded Springfield banking market – but he said the area’s growth makes it capable of supporting another institution.

The Signature Bank President Rob Fulp agrees.

“I think there’s always room for a new player in town. It’s all about getting the right people that have the same passion to deliver high-level service,” Fulp said. “Quite frankly, it begins and ends with having the right people for the industry.”

OakStar, held by OakStar Bancshares Inc., would be the 43rd banking institution and 173rd branch in the Springfield metropolitan statistical area, based on Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data from June, the most recent available.

The last startup bank in Springfield was Old Missouri National Bank in 1999, which opened on the heels of The Bank and Signature Bank in 1997 and Liberty Bank in 1995. Bracht said that makes it even more advantageous for his group.

“No new bank has started here in the last six years,” he said. “Usually when you have an economy growing like this one is, you’ll see banks start on a more frequent basis than what has happened here. Will it be competitive? Will we have to focus on our goals? Absolutely. This will not be an easy market to go out and be highly successful in, but the opportunity is there.”

Bracht points to the numbers to back that up: Gross domestic output of the Springfield/Joplin area has doubled to $11.5 billion in the last 10 years; bank deposits in the Springfield MSA have grown 35 percent in the last five years; and Springfield’s MSA is the fastest growing in the state.

Competitor Fulp knows about starting a new bank. He was a junior officer at Metropolitan National Bank when it started in 1983.

He is not surprised by the new activity, which includes expansions by Guaranty Bank and Metropolitan National Bank.

“The local economy continues to be very strong – 2005 will be a record year for many banks, both in growth and expansion,” Fulp said.

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