After building a career running McDonald’s franchisees, local entrepreneur Henry Coaxum has launched a new community bank in New Orleans, the first bank to be chartered in Louisiana in over a decade amid a wave of consolidations in the industry.
Coaxum said he decided to co-found Nola Bank because of a number of mergers and acquisitions that have transformed the local banking industry over the years, which is now dominated by national bank brands and larger regional players.
After sitting on the board at Hammond-based Florida Parishes Bank for nearly a decade, he watched it sell to First Bancshares Inc. in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 2019…