Frustrated by regulators toughening their oversight, Main Street’s chairman, Thomas Depping, announced that the 27-year-old bank will surrender its banking charter and sell its four branches to a nearby bank.
With the backing of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, Mr. Depping is planning to setup a new lending entity that will operate beyond the reach of banking regulators—and the deposit-insurance safety net.
“The regulatory environment makes it very difficult to do what we do,” says Mr. Depping.
“The No. 1 complaint that we hear from community bankers is that they feel that regulators have gone one step too far and are choking off lending,” says Paul Merski, chief economist at the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group that represents small banks.
While bankers have long complained about their overseers and the quality of the auditors, the only reasons that financial institutions close are due to acquisition or failure. The decision by Main Street is unusual.
See the article in the Wall Street Journal “Fed Up: A Texas Bank Is Calling It Quits”