Dan Dykes abides by the adage, if you see a need, fill it. And he sees a need for community banking in Douglas County.

For several years he has watched the thriving industry take root across Northern Nevada. Now he’s planting his own, Carson River Community Bank, not far from the namesake stream and smack in the middle of the commercially fertile northern end of the Carson Valley.

As he neared his goal of $10 million in initial investment and regulatory approval for an October opening, Dykes says he appreciates those fiercely aggressive community banks which already have made their claim in the coveted small-business market in Northern Nevada.

“They developed over the last 15 or so years a more permanent niche for community banks,” Dykes says, citing Reno-based First Independent Bank as the poster child for successful community banks.

Now comes Carson River Community Bank, borne, Dykes says, out of suggestions he received from area residents after the Las Vegas banker bought property in Douglas County five years ago. “Go to the Carson Valley, and from here south, they’re not served well by community banks,” Dykes says. “The market share rests with Wells Fargo, Nevada State and Bank of America.”

Local ownership4

Las Vegas-based Business Bank of Nevada has a branch in Minden some miles south of the Douglas-Carson City line near where Dykes (who spent much of his growing-up years in Northern Nevada) is setting up shop.

“Business Bank has done a good job — they’re very aggressive with their marketing plan — and Jerry Gregory is a great face man for community banks,” Dykes says of Business Bank’s vice president in Northern Nevada.

“But with all due respect to Business Bank, we’ve got local talent and local ownership,” he says of his staff as well as his investors who so far are three-fourths locals.

Whether Carson River Community Bank can match the profitability enjoyed by other small banks in the region in recent years remains to be seen.

The general business climate still is favorable for starting up a new bank, but not what it was a couple of years ago, says Tom Cargill, longtime industry observer and economist at the University of Nevada, Reno.

He cites the interest rate spread, what a bank pays out in interest versus what it charges for loans, which has narrowed with rising rates. That pinches the profit margin.

Add in ever-increasing competition from other banks as well as nonprofit credit unions, and the challenge is on for Carson River Community Bank.

“It’s a less-favorable environment. It’s still positive, but not nearly what it was,” Cargill says.