RockPoint Bank opened last year in downtown Chattanooga as one of the biggest bank startups in the country.
But amid the pandemic, there was no elaborate celebration to mark the bank's entry into the Chattanooga market.
A year later with the COVID-19 restrictions lifted, RockPoint officials on Thursday gathered with local business and community leaders to celebrate the bank's success in its first year. Since its opening on March 15, 2021, RockPoint has attracted more than $125 million in assets, expanded its initial 21-person staff to 27 employees "and our growth momentum continues to build," RockPoint CEO Hamp Johnston said.
"COVID pushed back our opening six to nine months from what we originally envisioned, but the community response has been great and I think it shows there is a need for a strong locally focused bank with local decision makers," Johnston said in an interview with the Times Free Press.
RockPoint has grown its banking presence from its single downtown office in the 401 Building on Chestnut Street and without the influx of Paycheck Protection Program loans and grants that helped swell assets at many banks. According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), RockPoint is one of just nine community banks that started in 2021 across the country and it was one of only two that had surpassed $100 million in assets by the end of the year. RockPoint reported assets of $104.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2021.
RockPoint, which derives its name from the Creek Indian word for Chattanooga meaning "rock rising to a point," was the first new bank to start in Chattanooga since the former CapitalMark bank began operations in 2007 and the first bank to be started anywhere in Tennessee since 2018 when Studio Bank began operations in Nashville.
The Nashville-based Pinnacle Bank ultimately acquired CapitalMark in 2015 for $187 million.
"In the past we had, a lot more startup banks, but the low-interest rate environment and the increased compliance costs of operating a bank are slowing down the number of new banks," said Colin Barrett, president of the Tennessee Bankers Association. "It's not easy to start a bank and what the folks have done at RockPoint in the past year is very impressive."
The organizers of the bank attracted more than $33 million from over 350 investors, most of them local, to capitalize the startup bank last year, Johnston said.
RockPoint's target market is local businesses and professionals in the community. Johnston, who previously was the market executive in Chattanooga for J.P. Morgan Chase bank before be began organizing RockPoint in 2019, said many local borrowers have been impacted by consolidation in the banking industry.
"As banks get larger, processes are centralized and decisions are typically made further away," he said. "Being owned, headquartered and managed locally allows RockPoint to operate differently and provide a better banking experience where customers are valued and appreciated."
More than two-thirds of the bank assets in Chattanooga are are at institutions that have merged with other banks in the past decade, Johnnston said.
"We just felt with the consolidation going on in the banking industry, which we expect will continue, there is still a place for a bank with experienced local bankers focused on Chattanooga," Johnson said. "It just allows us to operate a little differently."
Among the 26 other commercial banks operating in metropolitan Chattanooga, only First Volunteer and Millennium Bank are headquartered in Chattanooga, although Simply Bank is based in Dayton, Citizens Tri-County Bank is headquartered in Dunlap, Bank of Dade is in Trenton, Georgia and Tower Community Bank is in Jasper.
"We believe we're in a strong, growing market in Chattanooga right now," Johnston said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.