Community bank may be old-fashioned, but it has big plans

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - John Kreighbaum, the energetic boss of Carolina Premier Bank, is a juxtaposition of newfangled and old-fashioned.

Kreighbaum, who opened the Charlotte bank about three years ago, preaches against the stereotype that little banks are technological Luddites. His lenders explain products with help from 52-inch touch screens on their office walls. The two-branch bank expects to soon start giving walk-in customers their documents via encrypted flash drives instead of paper. And Kreighbaum plans to launch new banking centers, which would be operated mostly by videoconferenced bankers and other electronic devices, in little corners of rural stores.

At the same time, he is a fastidious defender of some more traditional protocols. He gets irritated by the idea that bankers should wear anything but dark suits and white shirts, and he can't abide by casual Friday -- "No, absolutely not, nor do we dress down at Halloween," he says. He pipes in classical music at the office and ignored the consultant who told him the bank was too stuffy. People who have worked with him say he obsesses over details, which can make it seem like he's micro-managing.

Chief executive Kreighbaum has reason to be confident: In December, Carolina Premier hit a critical milestone, turning its first quarterly profit. He also has big plans: He wants to take the company public this year and start buying other banks.

"We attract customers today that two years ago wouldn't have returned our calls, and it's because of being a bank that didn't say, 'We want to conquer the world,'" Kreighbaum said. "We just kind of came in every day and did our thing, and we grew and we took care of our people along the way."

To be sure, he'll face obstacles. Carolina Premier expects the public offering will be in the fall and plans to raise $25 million, followed by a second, $50 million round in 2012. But competition for capital is fierce, and other small banks, both healthy and sick, have struggled to find investors. Buying another bank, even a healthy bank, always presents risks: Customers can get annoyed by the new management, or the new owners may find problem loans they weren't expecting.

Carolina Premier has about $160 million in assets, and Kreighbaum said he wants to reach $1 billion in two years. He said he expects to buy a bank this year and another in 2012, and is looking to move into Virginia and South Carolina.

Kreighbaum said he isn't interested in buying failed banks from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a tack taken by some other small banks and investment firms. It's too costly to clean them up, he said, and it's akin to putting a new name on a shuttered hamburger joint: Nobody is fooled.

Of the six community banks in Charlotte's Mecklenburg County, Carolina Premier is still the smallest. But it is growing while most of the others are trimming assets or holding steady. Only one of the others, Park Sterling, has announced similar growth plans. Park Sterling has about $616 million in assets and wants to grow to as much as $10 billion in five years, by buying banks in Virginia and the Carolinas. Park Sterling brought in new leaders when it made the strategy change, including hiring former Wachovia CEO Bud Baker as chairman.

Kreighbaum said there's "enough opportunity to go around." Said Park Sterling president Bryan Kennedy: "There's room for other people to execute this strategy, and we wish him all the luck in the world."