Audio clip
Ken Dyer
As he walks through the remodeled offices of his bank’s downtown offices, CapitalMark Bank & Trust President and CEO Craig Holley is visibly proud.
In just a year, he and CapitalMark’s 40 employees built an unknown bank into one of the nation’s top performing start-ups in 2007.
Of the more than 170 banks that opened in last year, CapitalMark ranked fifth in the nation in total asset growth, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
And just a week after its one-year anniversary, the bank had one of its best days and for the first time jumped over $200 million in total assets, closing at $201,663,000. Deposits as of that day were about $167 million.
“What we’re hearing from our clients is they like getting to deal with one banker for all of their transactions,” Mr. Holley said.
Mr. Holley and the executives like Kenneth Dyer who have been with him since the day CapitalMark opened last March attribute that quick growth and success to the bank’s unique approach.
“I think we’ve got a very good business model that has been embraced very well by Chattanooga and our customers,” Mr. Dyer said.
CapitalMark’s model offers what Mr. Holley calls more personal banking for both consumer and business customers, utilizing services such as remote banking.
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CapitalMark President and CEO Craig Holley discusses the bank at the lender’s Broad Street office in this file photo.
That personal banking is exactly why George Perry, controller for Fulmer Concrete, said he likes that his company does its banking with Mr. Holley and the other bankers at CapitalMark.
“They are professional bankers,” he said.
Mr. Perry said he likes that he deals with just one person for all of the concrete company’s needs. If his banker Bonnie Blalock can’t fix a problem, she figures out a way to take care of it, he said.
Right now, the bank’s business customers have an automated checking scanning device that can transmit checks automatically into their bank accounts from the place of business. The service is currently being tested for consumer banking customers and could be available in the next six months.
The experience of the bank’s senior staff also helps, Mr. Holley said. The bank’s three top executives each came from well-known local and regional Chattanooga banks.
Mr. Dyer, former city president for Regions Bank in Chattanooga, is the Chattanooga market executive for CapitalMark. Ryan Murphy, who was city president for FSGBank, is now the bank’s executive vice president, chief deposit officer and senior lender.
“I think we’ve got a very good board, very well known, very well respected and they’ve done a good job for us,” Mr. Dyer said. “And then most importantly, we’ve got an outstanding group of bankers that have been in Chattanooga for a long time and are very knowledgeable about their business, they’ve worked very very hard and done and outstanding job.”
Officials of the bank, which also has a branch in Knoxville, said for now they plan to continue to focus on services like remote banking rather than build more branches in Chattanooga.
Customers seem to like the way the model currently works, Mr. Holley said.
