Community Unity Bank, a Birmingham-based institution started less than two years ago by former Oakland County treasurer Andy Meisner, is being acquired by OakNorth, a London-headquartered bank that specializes in lending to businesses with $1 million to $100 million in annual revenue. The stock-for-stock transaction is still subject to regulatory approval. Meisner opened Community Unity Bank with the goal of lending to small businesses, a segment he felt was being overlooked by the region’s larger and consolidating banks.
At the time, Community Unity was just the second new bank to open in Michigan since the Great Recession. Greg Wernette, who took over as CEO from Meisner last October, said that Community Unity Bank wasn’t in any distress and wasn’t looking to be acquired when it became aware of OakNorth’s interest in expanding its U.S. presence. “OakNorth knew some people in the U.S. that we also knew, and they put us together,” Wernette said.
“Once we started the dialogue, we recognized that there was such an alignment between our cultures and our customer focus that it made a whole lot of sense to do this.”
Community Unity Bank has about $70 million in assets, including roughly $50 million in deposits, and about 17 employees at its single location in Birmingham. OakNorth intends to keep the Birmingham office open, and Wernette will also stay on as CEO of OakNorth’s U.S. Bank.
OakNorth acquires local U.S. bank
OakNorth was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in London. It markets itself as a “digital bank” and financial technology company, and says it has provided about $16 billion of financing to businesses across a wide range of sectors. Last year, OakNorth opened its first U.S. location in New York City, but a “representative office” that cannot collect deposits.
With the Community Unity acquisition, OakNorth would be able to operate as a full-service U.S. bank, taking deposits and putting loans on a U.S. balance sheet. “This merger gives OakNorth the opportunity to have a physical banking presence in the U.S.,” Wernette said, “where they can gather U.S. deposits and support a lot of growth in the U.S. market to pair up with what they’ve been doing in the U.K. market, which has been tremendous.”
Meisner was Oakland County treasurer from 2009 to 2021, and before that was a Democratic state representative for six years for the 27th District. He ran for Oakland County executive in 2020, but finished behind Dave Coulter in the Democratic primary.
“Andy assembled a great group of shareholders, a great board of directors and a great team,” Wernette said. “And then I was recruited in October to bring that banking experience — I have 39 years in banking — so I helped augment the team coming in as CEO. Andy is continuing to work with the bank in developing business, and helping maintain our relationships with the community and the regulators and the political environment, so he’ll be instrumental in getting this deal over the finish line for us.”
