Investors unveil New Valley Bank & Trust Co., 1st new Massachusetts bank since 2009 and…
Sixty Springfield-area investors, led by Frank Fitzgerald, who founded Bank of Western Massachusetts here in 1986, are in the process of organizing a new bank — with a name sure to be familiar to many — to be headquartered in Springfield. “It’s remarkable the support we’ve gotten so far,” Fitzgerald said in an interview with The Republican / MassLive.com, referring to the group’s as-yet-unnamed investors. “This is a broad-based group. We don’t want one big owner. We want lots of investors and no one owning a big percentage of this thing.” Fitzgerald; Jeff Sullivan, a veteran of both The Bank of Western Massachusetts and United Bank; Jim Garvey, president of St. James Check Cashing; and Dennis Murphy, of Ventry Associates, are among co-founders of the new bank. Their goal is to raise $25 million to $30 million in capital.