Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - Why Is This Tiny Wyoming Bank Listed Like a Used Car?

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

The team dives into a rare listing — a $43M rural Wyoming bank for sale — and uncovers why this deal might be too good (or strange) to be true.Business Listing - https://dealstream.com/d/biz-sale/banks/9kphsq💼 Sponsors:Capital Pad – Want to buy a small business but need funding? Or want to invest in someone else's acquisition? Capital Pad is a marketplace for acquisition entrepreneurs and investors. Founded by Travis Jamison, it simplifies governance, terms, and distributions. Professionalize your investing experience at https://www.capitalpad.com and tell them Acquisitions Anonymous sent you!VISO Business Capital – Financing a business acquisition? Heather and her team at VISO Capital work with 30+ lenders to match buyers with the best SBA loan options. Sign up for a free live Q&A and find the right deal structure faster: https://www.visiocap.net → click “Zoom Signup”In this episode, the hosts examine a highly unusual business listing: a $43 million bank for sale in rural Wyoming. During the episode the hosts dive into the pros and cons of owning a small bank in today's complex regulatory environment. What starts as an intriguing opportunity turns into a masterclass on financial regulation, rural market dynamics, and how bank ownership works in the U.S. Tune in to hear why owning a bank isn’t as glamorous (or easy) as it sounds.Key Highlights:- A $43M bank for sale in Wyoming appears in a public listing- Regulatory burden makes small banks hard to operate profitably- Discussion of community banks, consolidation, and compliance challenges- Real-world anecdote about a failed attempt to acquire a bank- Breakdown of what an “S charter” means and how banks are structured- Speculation on why this bank is listed publicly and what might be wrong with it- Heather's deep insight into the banking industry and SBA financingSubscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [e-mail]

I have always dreamt of owning a bank. Like, they are such good businesses. It's not as great as it sounds. I think it's a tough business to be in, really. I don't think Chase and Wells Fargo and Bank of America are probably, like, really gunning for this area. And it's more trouble than it's worth to go try and compete this business away. So that is a goal for all listeners. You want to get to the level of wealth where your next step in life is to buy a bank.

We said Acquisitions Anonymous. We don't have 100% beard anymore. And thumbs downing on just the plus inventory line. Today's episode of Acquisitions Anonymous is an exciting one. We went through and talked about a bank in a state that will kind of make you scratch your head because it's a state that's not very common. So Mills brought this deal. We really dug into it real quickly.

And then we came to a pretty quick conclusion about it. So follow along and here's the episode. Hey, everyone, it's Bill. And I want to tell you about maybe the most exciting sponsor we've had in a long time on the pod. It's called CapitalPad. And it is the thing that I wish existed when I started my journey of operating and investing in small businesses. So CapitalPad is a marketplace for acquisition entrepreneurs that is people who want to buy a business and need capital to list their deals and solicit capital from other people. who want to invest in acquisition deals. So if you want to back somebody buying a small business,

CapitalPad is a place to do it. And if you want to buy a business and need capital, you can go on CapitalPad to be introduced to investors. So the really great thing, too, from the investor side, is that CapitalPad takes care of all of the details that can get hairy with small business acquisitions. They handle standardized terms, standardized governance, standardized distributions, all up front in black and white, basically CapitalPad professionalizes investing in small businesses. And the returns can be really, really good. I'm so stoked that they exist. It's founded by my friend Travis, who is a phenomenal entrepreneur in his own right. So if this sounds like something that's appealing to you, if you want to buy a small business and need capital, or if you want to invest in

small businesses, go check out Capitalpad.com and tell them that Acquisitions Anonymous sent you. Good morning, everybody. Good morning. I am so excited. I tease this for Heather and Chelsea, but I have a deal that is going to blow your socks off, Michael. And I'm going to jump right into it because this is going to be quick because there's not that much detail, but it is pretty interesting. Okay. This is on deal stream.

It is a bank for sale in Wyoming. The asking price is $43 million. and there are very sparse details, but it says this is a great opportunity to buy a bank for sale in the United States of America. Established bank for sale in Wyoming. The listing has been up since November 9th of 2023. They have an S charter, which I have no idea what that means, but we have our resident banker here with us. The assets are between 200 million and 300 million U.S. dollars. It's in Wyoming, and they say the city or location will be disclosed.

after execution of NDA. A fully operational bank is for sale, qualified buyer is someone that provides proof of funds. Proof of funds is a letter from a well-known bank or brokerage firm. Please do not send a corporate bond, bank guarantee, SBLC, etc. And that is all we know about it. Are you guys excited or is it just me? It might just be you.

I have always dreamt of owning a bank. Haven't we all? They are such good businesses. Because, I mean, what has happened? I don't know if you guys have looked at it, but over the past like 50 years, the number of banks in the United States has gone down by like an order of magnitude. Like we used to have like 30,000 banks. I'm just using rough numbers here. But like we went from like 30,000 to like 5,000.

Somebody please fact check Michael for us. No, he's right. He's right. I can give you context on what it's going to keep happening. You know, it's going to keep happening. It's hard to start. Yeah. All the richest people in San Antonio, they own banks.

Like they all have made money doing something. Then they went and bought a bank like over and over and over again. So anyway, that's why I'm super excited about this. So anyway, go ahead. I see. I hear a lot of people say what you just said, Michael, that have been successful in business. And they want to own a bank and they'll talk to me about it. And I tell them having been in banks, as long as I.

have, that is the last business I would want to run. It is very complicated because it's the deposit side. It's the loan side. There's a very thin margin for error when you make loans. You can't sustain losses. It has to be, you know, and things happen, right? So you can easily make bad bets on loans. And you've got a net interest margin between, you know, what you're paying for deposits and what you're getting from loans. It's a really tricky, tricky business. And, you know, you've got to, you know, frankly, if you look at the stock market at the banks, you know, it's not a great place to invest your money there. You know, so I just think it's not as great as it sounds.

I think it's a tough business to be in, really. Well, and so the reality is that part of the consolidation that's happened is that smaller banks are under the same or similar regulatory and compliance burden as bigger banks. Now, with, like, you know, Sarbanes-Oxley and the Glass-Steagel Act and all these different, like, bank regulations that have come out, it's mainly aimed at consumer protection and making sure that, like, with Sarbanes-Oxley, it was that the bank isn't also running an investment bank and using your deposits to go make speculative bets. But a lot of this now is like, you know, anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist provisions, you know, all these different things. and small community banks, while they were great businesses and really sticky customer relationships and, like, good deposits, and they were very conservative in the way that they lent money out, all those banks now are getting gobbled up in the kind of heyday of, hey, we have the same regulatory burden, whether we have 50 billion in assets or a billion in assets. So let's grow. There are some tiers where regulations increase. There are some tears, but you're right. In general, you can be crushed by regulation being too small in banking.

The other dynamic that I don't like about this, but that banks, just if you own a bank, this is the world you live in, is that the banks have gotten good at least making money or staying somewhat profitable in a low interest rate environment where the spread of what they're borrowing funds for, you know, and then lending them out to you is very narrow. In a rising interest rate environment, the bank has a lot more room. to work with. You know, they're not just getting that small spread. But bankers are very tuned into what the Federal Reserve does.

And, you know, like what hint did they drop in the pre-meeting minutes about what they might do? And, you know, then politics overlay. It's a very, very interesting environment and not one that I would want to be like the bank president, you know, in navigating that, but maybe just like a shareholder and a board member kind of thing. Yeah. And by the way, the charter S, that's a state charter, I believe. that's what there's a thing there. So you could be a federally chartered bank or a state chartered bank.

And then there's, you know, there's the whole world of credit unions because they have their own set of rules. And they actually can operate without paying taxes. And banks get mad about that and kind of jealous about the rules there. It's a very complex web. It's a good thing, I think, in this country that we have so many banks, though. Even though it is consolidating and shrinking through the years, you know, if you look at other countries, Canada, for example, they just have a few banks. They've already, you know, that's the environment.

And once you get to that point, you know, your options are just so few, you know, it becomes a completely different game for the consumers of banks, whether they're businesses or individuals. And so I think we're really still very fortunate in this country that we still have an environment that allows for a lot of banks, even though the number is shrinking. Hi, Heather here. When I'm not breaking down deals with these guys, I'm helping people get the right SBA loans for their business acquisitions. Because when you're buying a business, the best financing isn't one size fits all. There's the best rate, fastest to close, the specific loan structure that you

need, or a little of all of those things. That's why my company, Vizo Business Capital, works with over 30 different lenders to find you the best funding in less time and with less friction, so you can focus on the deal. Sign up for a free live Q&A session on SBA loans at Vizocat.net. Then click Zoom sign up in the top right corner. That's VI. I-S-O-C-A-P dot net and click Zoom sign-up. So I had a buddy who tried to buy a pretty similar bank like this, and he comes from a long, you know, long experience in banking, all that kind of stuff. And it was a nightmare.

Like, they went through the process of finding the right bank, signing, you know, signing a contract over six months, eventually with the bank to sell itself, getting a reasonable deal, I think, and then having a business plan that I thought was pretty good. Then they spent nine months raising all the money and getting all the commitments

to do the purchase. And then it went to the FDIC to approve, and I think it's the FDIC, whoever the regulator was, went to the FDIC to approve the thing. And like six months later, they're like, nope, sorry, we're not going to do it. You're not cool.

We're not good with this consolidation. You guys aren't the right owners for this bank. And then somebody else swooped in and bought the bank for the same price. So the guy just wasted like three years putting it all together. Just total nightmare situation. I was like, I don't know why you're signing up for this, my friend. But he did.

And it sucked. What I find fascinating is this is a bank being listed online. Yeah. They never are listed. Right? Like a public listing? Never. I don't think I've ever seen that.

Yeah. That's why I called my eye because you don't really see things like this. But, you know, I think when they're saying they want proof of funds, you know, I don't, I don't know that you can borrow money to buy a bank. So I think that this is like all cash deal. And one thing I like about it is that it's probably in a very rural area. And, you know, I don't think Chase, you know, and Wells Fargo and Bank of America are probably like really gunning for this area. And it's more trouble than it's worth to go try and compete this business away. So could it function like a bond and you just kind of clip a coupon?

Yeah. But to Michael's point earlier, you know, you could spend a ton of time on this and, you know, you don't have the right pedigree. You don't have the right connections, you know, at the Federal Reserve and you waste a bunch of time and money. I think you would have to have a ton of, you know, bank. You're probably like a retired bank president and, you know, you're going to an investor base and it's just an all-cash deal.

That's exactly what they do. Yeah, that's how these things trade. is somebody who knows how to run a bank and has a proven track record, puts together an investment pool and acquires banks. I have no idea how they're valuing this, though. All they're telling us is asset size, and that doesn't tell us what the earnings are, what the net interest margin is, and, you know, what kind of book of business does this bank have? It's pretty tiny. But like you said, clip a coupon. Well, it kind of depends.

What is this? What is their niche? You know, who did they serve? What does that look like? That really tells you a lot about a bank. this size because it's it's really tiny. One nice thing about something like this is that there are a ton of publicly traded bank comps.

So you could go and say when you like, let's say you sign the NDA and you look at this, you can see what like the majority of the universe, you know, in the United States, what their company performance is like. Is this company a top tier performer or in they are they in the bottom desile? You could you could get some good data in publicly available information.

about the... You can get it even when they're not publicly traded, by the way, just because they are banks. So there's a database, and I'm going to forget the website that I use, but you can even get the privately held banks, like the De Novo startup banks that haven't gone public yet, because they have to report everything to the government. So you're actually able to see, you know, a lot about... That's why they're probably not telling us much, because if we knew it... If we knew much, we would be able to probably pull it up and find out everything about this

bank. But what I find curious is why is being listed like this. So sketchy. This is odd. Yes. Makes that sense. Well, can I talk about the other thing that absolutely sucks about this bank? Like, it's in Wyoming.

There's 500,000 people in Wyoming. And rural Wyoming, like rural, the rest of the United States is not gaining people. People are not moving to BFE. Like the cities are winning. The match is over, right? Everybody's moving to bigger cities. And like, you're going to have all. the problems running a bank like this that you have running any other business in a tiny town.

The biggest town in Wyoming is 65,000 people. It's Casper. And it's only probably still there because it's close to Colorado. And like, I think you're running into a situation where you're going to have just all of this absolute headache. And yeah, I don't know. For that reason, I'm out. So we're not doing shark tank today?

No, we are. So I almost could, like, I was picturing Chelsea turning into the monopoly man and like, you know, twisting the white mustache. and she was really excited about it and you just burst her bubble. I'm sorry, Chelsea. We're so glad we're here. What do you think of this bank? It honestly, as we were like looking at it, it reminded me of the health care consolidation

that happened where rural hospitals were suddenly like, come by me. I can't survive back in 2011. I can't survive under these new regulations. And so I have literally never seen a bank for sale on a listing site. And so I don't know if that's part of it or if there's a desire for like, they hope someone strategic sees them and wants to branch out in rural Wyoming. It's a hot market, according to Michael Girdley, so everyone should want this business. I just think it's super bizarre, but I can honestly say I've never thought or read or considered

the idea of buying a bank. So that is a goal for all listeners. You want to get to the level of wealth where your next step in life is to buy a bank. And I still say no, even at that. Look, I'm on the other side of this because, I mean, I know, Heather, you worked in a bank, so you have a different experience. I've watched the people on the other side who've been involved in de novo banks and bought banks. Like, I've seen, I've seen and heard of people just absolutely cleaning up to the point where they're just like, hey, we want to buy another bank. Like, that's how good it is gone for some of these folks.

Now, also, the world has changed in the past 10 years, right? We were in the ZERP environment. Capital was flagged freely. you didn't have as much, you know, hassle trying to get loans out. The regulators weren't putting the brakes on the economy like they are now. So past performance does not indicate future performance. So I just put a caveat on all that. But I'm not so sold that owning a bank as a horrible thing.

I think there's a lot of people making a lot of money doing it. I think they make money on the acquisition. You know, it's like a lot of, they don't make a lot of money in the short term while they're running the bank and putting it together and making it attractive to a suitor. But yes, when they get, all this consolidation, people make money on that definitely selling to the bigger bank. Well, and I'm curious if like one of the challenges with all of this that we've talked about is the heavy regulations, but they are rolling regulations back and under this administration.

So like maybe it'll get easier. So maybe, you know, Bob down the street should go buy the bank, $43 million. It's to be great. Yeah. Well, thanks for entertaining me, guys. I was so excited. And you know what? I'm going to probably just dream about this.

And it's going to be the one that got away for. you know, the rest of my life. But you know what? It might still be for sale in a year or two, you know? The fact it's listed online and the fact that it's, I got a listing price online and that it's still been here for like nine months or it's from 2023, you said, it's 18 months old. There is something fundamentally wrong with this whole situation. And I think somebody should go sign the NDA just to find out what is so wrong with it.

That's how cool. That's why. But I think there's no deal to be had. If you will let me borrow your proof of funds, I will be. do it. Okay, Michael. Can I use a PDF editor? Can we borrow Heather's? Yeah. I'm going to have to talk to Heather and Chelsea about that. I'm out. All right, well, thanks everybody for tuning in. This was a fun episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you've ever looked at a bank, we're dying to know more. Maybe you're a bank president and you want to partner with us

on this deal. Yeah, we're dying to know more. Respond to us on Twitter and let us know what you think. See you all next time.