Indian-American's dream to start bank comes true

NEW YORK: Satish Jasti, an ambitious Indian-American entrepreneur who has been working in the banking industry for a long time, always wanted to start a bank and recently his dream came true.

The City Central Bank, which was formed by 20 mostly South Asian Americans including Jasti, has received approval by the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which is necessary for a bank to go into operation.

The bank is now waiting for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission after which it plans to conduct an initial public offering to raise between 11 million and 16 million dollars.

Initially, the bank will operate from Novi, a small township in Oakland County of Michigan State. There is currently no South Asian-owned bank in Michigan and Jasti says it would give them advantage but the new bank would not confine its activities to only South Asian community.

The City Central Bank will initially focus on loans to small-and-medium-sized businesses and professionals as well as loans to consumers.

The bank will also pursue the physician market by offering special products for doctors' offices, such as easily available credit and remote deposits using small check scanners and a courier service to pick up cash deposits, Jasti said.

To pursue the South Asian market on the consumer side, the bank is looking into linking up with an India-based bank to enable transactions between the two countries without incurring any fees, he said.