Chip Mahan, who stepped down from the post of CEO and chairman of Internet banking vendor S1 in October last year, is setting up a new specialist lending business in Wilmington, North Carolina. Live Oak Banking is on track to receive its charter in July
and could open its doors for business within six months. The niche bank will focus on business lending to vets, kennels and children's day care operations.
Those with long memories will remember Chip Mahan as the driving force behind Security First Network Bank, arguably the world’s first stand-alone Internet banking operation. SFNB didn’t last the course and its banking assets – comprising a meagre $55 million
in desposits – were eventually snapped up by Royal Bank of Canada for $13 million. The bank had been valued at $48.8 million at its IPO in 1996, but turned in total losses of $50 million in the two years following the flotation. The bank’s technology subsidiary,
Security First Technologies, was spun off as a separate entity under the S1 brand with Chip at the helm.