Agility Bank Opens as First Minority Depository Institution in the U.S. Established to Focus on Women—But Serving All
Veteran banker Laquita Cyprian just knew there had to be a better way to serve her small and mid-size businesses. She found the answer at Agility Bank, the first bank in the country to form under a special Minority Depository Institution charter of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to focus on women, but working for all. “This is an incredible opportunity for the Houston community,” said Cyprian who is the Chief Banking Officer for Agility and attended Texas Southern University. “There are over 200,000 small businesses in the Houston area. Minority females are becoming entrepreneurs faster than any other group with minority men in a close second. Agility is a bank committed to fostering the growth of small and mid-size businesses who are contributing to the success of Houston’s economy.” Set to open late this spring, Agility was the culmination of experiences of Lauren Sparks, a former community banker who ultimately formed her own firm to assist community banks meet their compliance and regulatory requirements. She just didn’t see enough women in either the C-suites or even at the table. “Agility is not about men or women, it is about having the best ideas at the table and that has to include both women and men,” said Sparks, president and CEO of Agility. “The time is absolutely right for a bank like Agility as Houston
engages in an evolving economy. There are incredible opportunities.”
Not content to forming the usual bank, Sparks is launching a primarily digital bank. “We are as close to a fintech as our clients want or need. Our clients will know, however, that relationships will always be our North Star,” she said. One example of forward leaning technology is A2B Express, a platform for small businesses in the Houston region to apply for a loan online. The system pulls in information from over 20 sources to help make the lending decision, including credit scores, tax records and publicly available information. “This saves the small business person a significant amount of time,” explained Cyprian whose previous experience had been with larger banks. “They don’t have to run around to gather a lot of their information. Rather they can continue doing what they like to do—grow their businesses.” She added: “The best news? The typical time to receive an answer is less than a day, most likely in a matter of hours. If issues are brought up in the process, our bankers are committed to trying to guide the applicants to becoming bankable.”
The Agility team is also concerned about the
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