Starting a bank?

[bwall]

I am interested in starting a bank, but I've never worked in finance or banking. I know that there are lots of smart experience people on these forums, thus the post.

I've looked online at the basic requirements to start a bank and I feel as if I have the resources and identified the target demographic to move forward.

My question to the MMM community:

1) Has anyone here ever started a bank, or worked on founding a bank?

2) I know it's not easy, but how *hard* is it? Meaning, is it just a lengthy time consuming process upwards of one year, or is it almost impossible to get approval and just one mis-step and you're done?

3) What is the most difficult obstacle that you encountered?

I'm also going to post this under "Investor Alley" since I'm not sure the best place for these questions.

[bwall]

Thank you for the feedback. I thought that the minimum capital was more than $1m, but it varies from place to place, I believe. In which geographic area do you live? How did you determine that $1m is enough?

Companies have banks as part of their finance department..... hmmm.... what kind of companies? I've heard of GE Capital, but they re getting rid of their finance arm. I haven't come across this very often, but I'll have to be on the lookout for this structure in the future.