Home foreclosures are at record levels. The Federal Reserve has repeatedly cut interest rates. The credit crisis has claimed its share of financial institutions, such as the failed NetBank Inc., or others like Bear Stearns and Countrywide that sought bailouts by stronger competitors.

Yet for Bill Short, president and chief executive of Touchmark Bancshares Inc., which opened its doors Jan. 28, this couldn't be a better time to start a new bank.

"It's a tough time to raise capital, but it's a great time to start a bank," said Short, a 30-year Atlanta banking executive who spearheaded the bank's efforts to raise $32 million in capital over a five-month period.

The trend of bank starts in Georgia, which enjoyed a healthy spike in the early to middle part of the decade, has slowed sharply. In 2006, 21 banks opened their doors throughout the Peach State. Last year that number had dropped to nine, according to the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. And so far this year, only three banks have opened in Georgia.

"It's a very difficult and challenging time in the economy," said Rob Braswell, state banking commissioner. "We have seen evidence it's not as easy to raise capital and because there have been so many new charters in the last several years, the pool of qualified management is much shallower than it was several years ago."

But those institutions that have opened recently are touting a distinct advantage over their established competitors: Clean balance sheets.

"We don't have any problems and we're able to concentrate on growing the bank," said Ken L. Barber, chairman and chief executive of Douglasville-based Metro Bank, which also opened Jan. 28 with $22 million in capital funding. "We're not having to worry about those problem loans, whereas the managers of those banks are distracted by their asset problems now."

That's an edge because it means they're less restricted in what they can do, said Brook Olson, a research analyst at SNL Financial, a consulting firm.

"They are in a better situation. That can make it an advantage," she said.

Still, the promise of starting off with problem-free balance sheets isn't enough to woo investors. And the new crop of banks is entering a very crowded field: There are 162 banks operating in metro Atlanta alone, compared with 139 institutions for all of North Carolina.

That market saturation means these new banks will have to concentrate on carving out niches in the marketplace, she said.

Community Business Bank in Cumming, which opened Jan. 22 with about $16.5 million in funding, is focused on Forsyth County businesses looking to expand, said A. Lee Wilhelm, its chief executive.

"Most of the people who invested with us are people who want to do business with us," said Wilhelm, explaining that banks that are saddled with bad loans are forced to keep tight reins on credit.

In Forsyth, which consistently ranks among one the nation's fastest-growing counties, that presents ample opportunity for Community Business Bank, Wilhelm said.

"There's an awful lot of change going on right now and those changes are making certain members of the small- and medium-sized businesses nervous."

Beyond "the club"

Touchmark is targeting professional groups such as doctors and accountants, small businesses and entrepreneurs and Gwinnett County's burgeoning Asian business community.

It explains why the bank's board has a strong East and South Asian contingent, said Vivian A. Wong, a co-founder, because she wanted the bank to reflect the community.

Short, who is white, agreed with that strategy.

"I've never been interested in the 10 white guys from the club who want to start a bank because it's not representative of the community."

Investors also are looking at boards more closely, too, because a solid management team will be able to take advantage of up-cycles and manage the inevitable downturns.

"Good times or bad times, it doesn't make any difference," said John L. Johnson, a metro area investor who bought shares in Touchmark, because it met three key criteria: good strategy and focus, viable market and a solid management.

As long as those key objectives are satisfied, then it should do well despite current economic conditions, said Johnson, who owns a commercial brokerage business and a separate real estate auction firm and has been investing in or helping start-ups, also known as de novo banks, for about 30 years.

Harder than it used to be

It explains why bankers are touting their years of experience in the financial sector and more importantly, their histories of starting new banks and managing the books in good times and bad, said Walter G. Moeling IV, an Atlanta banking attorney and a fixture in financial services in metro Atlanta for 40 years.

"The present crop of de novo applicants is composed substantially of bankers and directors in most cases who have done de novo banks before, have been through the process and have a clear understanding of marketplace conditions," said Moeling who is co-chairman of the financial institutions practice at Powell Goldstein.

"There are fewer examples of groups just getting together thinking 'Wouldn't it be nice if we started a bank on a four-way intersection?' Business plans today are much more focused on deposits."

They don't have a choice. In the early part of the decade, with mortgages being underwritten at record paces and developers building — and selling — houses on seemingly every open tract of land in metro Atlanta, they didn't have to concentrate on core deposits, he said, because those loans were funded by vehicles such as certificates of deposit.

Now, with housing and residential construction loans dragging banks' earnings, institutions are focused on growing core deposits to cushion the bottom line.

The old rule of investing — a goal of making money over the long-term instead of looking to make a quick buck — also is back in vogue.

"We told our investors the money you need to invest with us is patient money," said Wilhelm, the Community Business Bank's chief executive. "We're not in the business of swelling the balance sheet to flip the bank in three years."