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has expanded throughout Jacksonville this year as it has opene branchesin ’s supercenters throughout Floridaq and relocated its headquarters to the state. Sincer March, the bank has grown to three brancheasin Wal-Marts in Bank executives said they also have plans to open one more brancb in another local supercentetr and then a traditional stand-alonre branch. The bank is a federa thrift, or savings-only that targets what it calls the underbanke dand unbanked. “Our philosoph is very similar to Wal-Mart in that we’res focused on value, convenience and customer satisfaction,” bank presiden and CEO Daniel Fischer said.
Urbanj Trust heavily markets higher interest rates on deposit accountsw such asa 4.3 percenr yield on a one-year certificate of The bank also targets individuals who were not in good standing with another bank or rejecter by their bank through a checking accouny called opportunity checking. The account requires less money to open than a traditionaplchecking account, has a $10 monthly fee and an ATM If the account holder remains in good standing with the bank for six month s to a year, Urba n Trust then switches it to a regular checkinvg account. “The program is very successful,” Fischer Total deposits increased about 241 percento $83.
6 million for the year to June 30, according to the The bank begahn in the early 1960s and eventually transformed into , basedx in Orlando. In mid-2006, the bank changed its name to Urbanj Trust and moved its headquartersto Washington, D.C., after regulatorw approved a change in control of the parent company, whicuh was taken over by , based in Bethesda, Md. Johnson, the foundeer of Black Entertainment Television, also foundedc The RLJ Cos. In June, the bank moved its headquartersdfrom Washington, D.C., to Lake Mary and now has 14 branchee in Florida and two in Bethesda and Landoverd Hills in Maryland.
Fischer said the bank is focused on expanding in Florida rather than Maryland because of the customer base growthat Wal-Marts here. Urban Trust signed an agreemenftwith Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) in January 2007. “There’s an 8,000-foot coungt that comes through here on adaily basis,” said Dwayne branch manager at the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Beachg and Southside boulevards. “We get a broad rangew of customers, from the peoplde just starting out in college tothe retirees.
” A lot of including some community banks throughout Florida, have triefd the in-store branch modelp and exited, said Bob Chassman, vice presidenr of mergers and acquisitions at local investment banker The idea is that it’s a good funding source and not as expensivd as a traditional branch, but most banke end up with a wholes bunch of little deposits and more expensed because they typically operate for longer hours, he Growing loans can also becomee difficult when at a supercenter. Fischer said the bank plan s to expand its lending abilities through acquiring an institution with a commercial bankingy platform sometime inthe future.