Maple Bank clears high regulatory, capital hurdles to open in Champlin
Fizal Kassim was tough to reach on the August 4 opening day of his new state-chartered bank, Maple Bank in Champlin.
“I haven’t gotten many new accounts open today, but I’ve just been talking to everybody and anybody here,” he said when he was finally able to take a call. “We’ve got a few customers who deposited about a half million dollars. It’s different.”
Different from his 15-plus years as an executive at Western Bank in St. Paul, where he was an employee, and for the years before that with Marquette banks. Now he and 15 partners own the bank, and he’s president and CEO of it and the holding company, Maple Financial Holdings. They amassed $4.6 million in capital, which Kassim points out is midway between the $3 million typical to open a community bank, but below the $5 million minimum that regulators now recommend.
“I thought banking occupies a very special place in our economy,” he says. “And also, I was very lucky to be able to muster the capital from our investors. For banking, the barrier to entry is so high because of the regulatory issues and the money issues. So I felt I had to take advantage of the timeliness of doing my own bank.”
Many of the investors are small-business owners themselves, and at least one, Twin Cities attorney Chuck Johnson, figures the banking business is more stable than others, Kassim says: “He’s in the business of suing other entities, so his image of banking is that it’s a low-risk investment.”
“We found a great little niche, a community here in Champlin,” which he says is underserved in financial services. City planners have been rezoning areas to attract commercial and industrial development and thus expand the tax base
He says the bank will target businesses with $200,000 to $10 million in annual revenue for loans, and middle-class residents for deposits, with plans to reach into surrounding cities. Maple Bank’s legal loan limit is $600,000, although it can partner with other banks for higher amounts.
Kassim started an investment service for Western Bank that he grew to $70 million, and he has started the same service at Maple Bank. The bank also offers online banking and document imaging, the technology for which Kassim says in the past has been out of reach for small banks. “Thanks to the bust in the technology market, lots of those services have come down in price. A little bank like us was able to get that,” Kassim says.
Fizal Kassim, Maple Bank and Maple Financial Holdings: 763.712.2821; fkassim@maple-bank.com; www.maple-bank.com
