A proposed digital bank in San Juan, Puerto Rico, has received conditional approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Organizers of Nave Bank will need to raise $96 million of capital, according to the FDIC’s approval.
The group first applied to form the bank in January 2022.
Nave would use “highly scalable and state of the art technology that is purely digital and with no reliance on physical branches,” the application said.
“As a digital bank, the bank will take advantage of cost efficiencies, increased speed to market of its products and services, wider distribution of its products and services, and greater ease in establishing ongoing relationships with customers,” organizers added.
The group later disclosed that Carlos Garcia would serve as chairman and CEO of the bank and Nave Holdings, the proposed holding company. Garcia, who is also set to become president of commercial banking, was a director at Professional Holding, which was sold to Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida.
Juan Davila Lopez, another proposed director, is a senior vice president at Bank of the West in San Francisco, which agreed to be sold to Bank of Montreal.
Organizers plan to conduct a private placement to provide capital for Nave Holdings, which would then capitalize the bank.