Connecticut will not have a de novo bank in the near future after organizers of a planned bank in New Canaan withdrew their application.

The Connecticut Department of Banking said in its weekly bulletin that the organizers of The New Canaan Bank withdrew the application on Dec. 14 and surrendered their temporary certificate of authority.

The organizers had planned to open a commercial bank in New Canaan, the first brick-and-mortar community bank to launch in Connecticut since Start Community Bank, now known as New Haven Bank, opened in 2010. The bank would have been located in Bankwell Financial Group’s former Elm Street offices.

The organizers had filed the application to form a bank in Dec. 2021 and received the temporary certificate of authority in July. The certificate gave the organizers 18 months to complete the process for opening a new bank. New Canaan Bank’s application for FDIC deposit insurance had not yet been approved as of Dec. 13, according to the FDIC’s website.

The team organizing the bank included its proposed executive chairman, Fred Afragola, the founding chairman, president and CEO of Bankwell’s predecessor, the Bank of New Canaan. Afragola, who remained on Bankwell’s board of directors until 2017, was previously president and CEO of the former New Canaan Bank and Trust Co.

Other members of the original organizing team included Lou Garcia, Paul J. Kuehner, Joseph J. Rucci Jr., Thomas V. Ayoub and Anthony J. Domino Jr. Garcia was the proposed president and CEO. That role ended in November, according to Garcia’s LinkedIn profile.

Other banking industry veterans tied to the planned bank included Heidi DeWyngaert, a proposed board member who had spent 15 years at Bankwell and the Bank of New Canaan before retiring in 2019, and John Lund, a former FDIC examiner and chief financial officer for several community banks and credit unions. Lund was slated to be the de novo’s chief financial officer, a role that ended in October, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The Commercial Record has reached out to The New Canaan Bank organizers for comment.