It’s an open secret in the fintech world that the founder and CEO of startup Increase, Darragh Buckley, has been trying for years to “buy a bank,” as one person familiar with the landscape told TechCrunch.
A couple of weeks ago, he basically succeeded.
He bought a big enough stake in Twin City Bank to trigger a public disclosure of the transaction by the Federal Research Board. Such share purchases are then subject to FDIC approval. Twin City is a small community bank in Longview, Washington, about an hour north of Portland, Oregon. The stake had to be in excess of 10% to trigger the disclosure.
Buckley confirmed the deal to TechCrunch but declined to say how big of a stake he purchased. Whether he owns 11% or, say, 51%, we understand he is not the sole owner. Still, anything upwards of 10% makes him a major shareholder. (For comparison, public companies have to disclose all ownership stakes of 5% or more.)
The assumption in the industry was that Buckley wanted a bank to further the ambitions of Increase, his banking-as-a-service (BaaS) startup, multiple sources told TechCrunch.
What’s particularly wild is that a mysterious entity — most likely one of Buckley’s competitors — was so opposed to this deal that it hired an agency to pitch the press on writing negative stories about it and him.
But, Buckley told TechCrunch, this was actually his third investment in a Washington community bank and his interests are not what his competitors think.
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This is not an effort for Increase to own the bank, he said. “Twin City Bank is, and will remain, a community-focused bank,” he said.
Silicon Valley finds a banking shortcut
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