It probably wouldn’t work anywhere else, but near the posh seashores of Fairfield County, a new bank incorporating wealth management and financial planning and retail banking just might take off.

Chief organizer John Bowes and 20 other organizers are in the early stages of opening the Darien Bank & Trust Co., which will offer financial planning services and wealth management, as well as traditional banking services, from the day it receives its charter. If the bank receives approval from the state Department of Banking, it will be based in Darien with a branch in the Rowayton section of Norwalk.

“There was a good opportunity and a need” to combine community banking and wealth management, Bowes said.

It is relatively rare for a de novo bank to start out with an equal emphasis on investment services and retail banking, said John Carusone, president of the Hartford-based Bank Analysis Center, who helped prepare the bank’s application and feasibility study.

“This is the only hybrid trust and bank where the business is as involved [in both aspects],” Carusone said. “In [the Bank Analysis Center’s] experience, it is unique and unusual.”

Carusone and his partner at the Bank Analysis Center are well versed in starting up new banks; they’ve prepared 30 applications for de novo banks across New England.

The bank’s organizers have planned for the extra hurdles they will encounter by proposing a complicated plan.

“I think their business concept … is well conceived,” Carusone said.

The bank’s location could be the key to its success. The market in Fairfield County is one of the most attractive in the country for the products and services Darien Bank’s organizers plan to offer, Carusone said. Residents there are accustomed to sophisticated banking and financial services and Darien Bank would offer that, he said.

“This … involves very good market segmentation and focus,” he said.

The strategy that Bowes and the other organizers are using isn’t very common, said Lindsay Pinkham, vice president of the Connecticut Banking Association.

“There are not a lot of institutions opening trust operations these days,” he said.

The location of the bank will be important, he added. There is a lot of money in Fairfield County, he noted, and a lot of it is “new” money.

“It would probably be easier to get going down there [in Darien],” Pinkham said.

‘Experienced’ Group

The organizers of the bank did a lot of research into the area where they plan to open, Bowes said. The combination of services will provide for the affluent people in Darien and surrounding areas. During the planning process, the organizers did a local survey that found interest in the idea and identified communities around Darien and Norwalk, such as New Canaan and North Stamford, as a secondary market.

“Most banks don’t offer as complete a service,” Bowes said.

Small banks don’t offer the services that Darien Bank & Trust would, and most big banks don’t do it well, he said. That was part of the reason Bowes came up with the idea.

Bowes has a background in financial services, but this is the first time he has worked on a bank project. He is a former chief executive officer of the Chrysler Capital Corp. and also created the Lyon Credit Corp. for the French bank Credit Lyonnais. Lyon Credit Corp. was later sold. Since mid-2002, Bowes has been working full-time on the startup of Darien Bank.

Bowes and the other organizers applied in February for a temporary state charter, which will allow them to begin raising the $12 million to $15 million needed to back the bank.

“We hope to [raise it] locally,” Bowes said.

Bowes and the other organizers will commit a significant portion of the capital, he said, and they hope to raise the rest locally. People have shown interest in investing in the bank, he said.

Along with the application to the Department of Banking, the state requires organizers of new banks to file fund a feasibility study, a three-year financial forecast and a business plan, according to the Connecticut Department of Banking’s Web site. The state then holds a public hearing before a panel consisting of the banking commissioner, the treasurer and the comptroller. The bank is approved if the panel decides the bank serves the interest of the public, meets conditions in the locality where the bank is proposed, affords a reasonable promise that the bank will operate successfully and that the proposed directors have the experience to perform their duties. After gaining state approval, the organizers have to apply to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for insurance.

The next step for the Darien Bank & Trust organizers will be the public hearing, which was not yet scheduled as of press time.

Gaining the regulatory approval will be the organizers’ biggest hurdle, Carusone said. Because the proposed institution is so complex, it will need more than the usual amount of evaluation.

“It’s unusual for an institution to be granted trust powers at inception,” he said, adding that “regulatory approval is always uncertain.”

But the proposed bank also has some characteristics that will improve its odds. The $12 million to $15 million sought to start the bank is more than the usual amount of capital that organizers of most new banks collect. The organizers of Darien Bank & Trust are also knowledgeable about the business.

“The organizing group is highly experienced,” Carusone said.

The timeline for gaining approval varies and a large part of the challenge is raising the capital, Pinkham said. It could take 12 to 18 months to go through the approval process, find locations for the bank and open.

“That takes time,” he said.

Bowes hope to have a temporary charter in May or June. Because the bank’s organizers are committing much of the capital, Bowes hopes to open the bank before long.

“Depending on how long it takes to raise the capital, we hope to open by year-end,” he said.

The organizers’ choice to raise the capital locally rather than through a public offering could take longer, but allows them to avoid paying expensive investment fees, Carusone said.

“Most importantly, it assumes a higher involvement by the shareholders in the institution,” he said.

Because people in Darien and surrounding areas are the ones investing in the bank, they will be more likely to put some of their money there, Carusone said. The organizers are planning on that, but realize that people won’t put all of their money in the Darien Bank & Trust, but many will put some there, Carusone said. They just want “their fair share,” he said.

Also, the continuing consolidation of banks across the country “bodes well for a niche institution” that has such a focus, Carusone said. Recent scandals also could help the bank.

“The environment of suspicion surrounding the larger mutual fund companies and investment banks that have been involved in some of the corporate malfeasance, chicanery or scandals is suggestive of an opportunity for a small newcomer that doesn’t carry that type of baggage,” Carusone said.

Bowes and the other organizers haven’t yet found locations for the bank and its branch, but hope to find a building in downtown Darien for the main office and a space near the waterfront in Rowayton for the branch.