Bank chooses name: Triumph

Commercial Appeal, The (Memphis, TN)
Financial group applies for state charter, says it expects to open in early 2006

Date: June 10, 2005
Section: Business
Page: C2
Source: David Flaum flaum@commercialappeal.com
Edition: Final

Triumph.

The name finally selected by organizers of a new Memphis bank may represent the result of the struggle to find a name as much as the moniker itself.

"It speaks of success. It speaks of victory," said Michael McCarver, Triumph chief operating officer.

McCarver acknowledged Triumph wasn't the organizers' first choice. Several picks were trademarked by other banks.

About a month ago, they thought they had a name that wasn't - Sentinel.

But Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions had taken over an unrelated, cash-strapped company, Sentinel Trust Co. of Hohenwald, which sent payments to holders of municipal bonds. State officials suggested organizers find another name.

Triumph "accomplished everything in a name we wanted those other names to accomplish," McCarver said.

So organizers on Thursday filed a letter of intent to apply for a state bank charter under that name. The department must reply within 10 days and, if that goes smoothly,

Triumph officials hope to get their private stock offering under way by the end of June, McCarver said.

Organizers of any bank in Memphis would have to raise at least $10 million in capital, said Kevin Lavender, commissioner of the department of financial institutions.

Their goal is $22 million - 2.2 million shares at $10 each in the holding company, Triumph Bancshares, from about 350 shareholders, McCarver said. He expects that to take about three months.

Triumph must also find a home. Organizers are looking at spots in the East Memphis business district near Poplar and I-240, but they haven't nailed down a location yet, McCarver said.

If the stock sale, lease agreement and regulatory approvals go well, Triumph Bank could be open in the first quarter of 2006, McCarver said.

Lane Carrick, chairman of the new bank, has said people behind the effort believe there is room for a high-service, locally owned community bank to do well.

Last year, the state was fifth in the nation in new bank charter applications, Lavender said.

"The economy has rebounded, and the state has a diverse economy that is attractive to the banking community," he said.

Bank buyouts have played a part as well.

Acquisitions of five Memphis banks last year, including two of the largest by out-of-state holding companies, were not the key factor behind Triumph's start up, Carrick has said.

- David Flaum: 529-2330

 Copyright, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN. Used with permission.
(http://www.commercialappeal.com )

TRIUMPH BANK
Top people: B. Lane Carrick, chairman; William J. Chase Jr., chief executive officer.
Status: In organization.
Organizers include:
Rick Masson, executive director of the Plough Foundation, former chief administrative officer, City of Memphis;
Larry Papasan, former president of Memphis Light, Gas and Water and Orthopedic Division of Smith & Nephew;
Burnetta Williams, staff vice president and assistant treasurer of FedEx Corp.
Steve Dunavant, partner in Thompson Dunavant, CPA firm