Deteriorating market conditions led the team looking to open Connecticut’s first new bank in more than a decade to abandon those plans.

The organizers of the proposed New Canaan Bank withdrew their application to establish a de novo bank last week and surrendered the temporary certificate of authority that had been issued, the Connecticut Department of Banking said in its weekly bulletin.

Lou Garcia, the proposed president and CEO of the bank, pointed to market conditions as driving the decision.

“Unfortunately, between the time we filed the application and received notice from the FDIC, market conditions deteriorated,” Garcia said in an email to The Commercial Record. “While we had significant investor interest, a stellar staff and location, the economic downturn presented enough concerns that we voluntarily withdrew our application.”

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.

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.