Commissioner Thomas E. Hampton of the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) is pleased to announce that DISB presented a District of Columbia bank charter today to Industrial Bank’s B. Doyle Mitchell Jr., president and chief executive officer, authorizing the bank to begin operations as a District chartered bank with its headquarters at 4812 Georgia Avenue, NW. The bank converted from a national banking association. 
 
“It’s a homecoming for Industrial Bank and a smart move,” Commissioner Hampton said. “Given the bank’s origins as an African-American-owned District bank, its extensive involvement in the District’s business and economic development, and its long standing commitment to providing banking services to the residents of the city, it is fitting that the bank be designated a District chartered bank.”

Under a District charter, DISB will supervise Industrial Bank, which is now the third bank chartered and regulated under District law since 2004.

The bank is currently the sixth largest African-American-owned commercial bank in the United States and is reported to be the oldest and largest minority-owned commercial bank in the metropolitan Washington region. The 73-year-old bank was previously chartered in 1934 as a District bank by an act of Congress. It converted to a national charter in 1994 to facilitate an interstate branch expansion and was supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Industrial Bank was founded by real estate investor, broker and attorney Jesse H. Mitchell, grandfather of its current chief executive officer. The bank operates five branches in the District and two in Maryland. As of March 31, 2007, it reported $323 million in total assets, $266 million in deposits and $27 million in capital.

Industrial Bank is a full-service commercial bank that offers a wide variety of banking services including checking, savings and investment accounts for retail and commercial customers. The bank also provides cash management, corporate on-line banking, electronic banking services, debit cards, credit cards and a variety of consumer, real estate, and commercial loans and lines of credit.