FDIC grants conditional approval for Bank of St. George in Utah

A group in St. George, Utah, has received conditional approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to form a bank.

The organizers of the proposed Bank of St. George must raise $20 million of initial capital before opening the bank. The group initially applied to open the bank in 2019, but withdrew the application. They reapplied earlier this year.

Bruce Jensen is the proposed CEO. The latest iteration of the bank would be completely funded by Fred Lampropoulos. The proposed bank would be based in St. George but will open a loan production office with a deposit-taking ATM in Salt Lake County.

Lampropoulos founded Sentir Semiconductors, which later merged into Merit Medical Systems. Jensen recently served as CEO of Redemption Bank, which was sold in June 2025 and rebranded as Holladay Bank and Trust.

Bank of St. George is pitching a classic community bank model, with a twist.

The bank plans to offer a full range of commercial and retail banking services, with an emphasis on commercial and commercial real estate loans, residential construction lending, and government-guaranteed loans administered through the Small Business Administration and the Department of Agriculture.