Black-owned bank in Ohio is first de novo approved in 2023

Adelphi Bank, a Black-owned de novo in Ohio, won regulatory approval to become the first new U.S. bank of the year.

Adelphi, a minority depository institution, was cleared for opening by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and is planning to launch in the coming months. Based in Columbus, it will join 20 other Black-owned depository institutions in the country and become the sole Black-owned bank in Ohio.

Banks that receive the minority depository institution designation, or MDI, are eligible for support from government and private-sector backers. To achieve MDI designation, a bank must have 51% minority ownership and board membership.  

Adelphi filed an application with the FDIC in the fall of 2021 and has since worked to raise about $20 million required by regulators.

Jordan Miller Jr., a former executive at Fifth Third Bank in central Ohio, is slated to be Adelphi 's CEO. He told American Banker in a previous interview that the effort to open Adelphi was part of a growing effort to increase Black Americans' access to capital.

"The hope is that we change lives," he said.

Adelphi took its name from a Black-owned savings and loan company that once occupied the same area where the bank's headquarters branch will be located.  

The former Adelphi Loan and Savings Company failed during the Great Depression.