Organizers planning de novo bank in New York City

A group has filed to form a nationally chartered bank in New York.

NBF Holdings would be the holding company for NewBank, according to an application filed with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Organizers have also applied with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for deposit insurance.

NewBank would be “primarily focused on providing credit, payments and deposits to consumers and businesses nationwide,” the filing says. “The bank will source customers and depositors largely through strategic partnerships, primarily with non-depository finance companies, original equipment manufacturers, retailers and technology companies.”

While organizers list the Americas Tower in Midtown Manhattan as the bank’s address, the filing says they currently have no plans to establish branch offices.

The organizers are Leslie Lieberman, John McNamara and Phillip DeLeonardis. Lieberman would serve as the bank’s chairman, while McNamara would be its CEO. Six people are set to serve on the board.

Lieberman is a former executive vice chairman at FCB Financial Holdings in Weston, Fla., which was sold in 2019 to Synovus Financial.

Lieberman and DeLeonardis were executives at Bond Street Holdings, which bought the $350 million-asset Premier America Bank, including FCB, in the wake of the financial crisis. Bond Street raised $740 million in equity and used a shelf charter from the OCC to pursue its acquisitions.

The OCC application did not provide information on how much capital the group is looking to raise.

Calls to McNamara and DeLeonardis were not immediately returned.

NewBank aims to be New York’s third de novo in recent years. Grasshopper Bank opened in May 2019 and Piermont Bank opened two months later.

The market is already home to a NewBank, which was formed in Flushing, N.Y., in 2006 by a group of Korean-Americans to focus on small businesses. That bank has six branches in the area.