FDIC signs off on Southern California de novo

A de novo proposed for Southern California has received conditional approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Legacy Bank was approved for deposit insurance on Dec. 14, according to a notice recently posted on the FDIC’s website. Organizers must raise $25 million in capital before the bank can open, according to the agency’s approval order.

Organizers had originally planned to open the bank in Temecula, but the order stated that Murrieta will serve as its headquarters.

The group behind Legacy filed its application in November 2019.

Organizers said when they applied that Jim Hicken would be the proposed bank’s president and CEO. He was the founding CEO of Bank of Santa Clarita, which he left in 2012. He then led a turnaround effort at Frontier Bank in Palm Desert, Calif., though the bank failed in November 2014.

The FDIC has signed off on deposit insurance for 16 proposed banks in 2020. Eight of those opened this year, while the proposed Coastal Community Bank in Hollywood, Fla., fell short of its capital-raising goal.