First Women’s Bank Submits FDIC Application, Names Board of Directors

SEP 24, 2019 - 6:40 am

First Women’s Bank filed applications with the FDIC and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to organize FWBank, an Illinois chartered bank. In conjunction with the filing of these applications, the proposed bank also named its initial board of directors.

“Women represent a large, powerful and growing part of the economy, and they are demanding a different banking experience,” said Marianne Markowitz, CEO of First Women’s Bank. “It’s time for a bank that prioritizes connection, solutions and responsiveness.”

Headquartered in Chicago, First Women’s Bank will be an innovative commercial bank that will serve small and mid-sized businesses and individual deposit clients. The bank, expected to open in 2020, will have a strategic focus on the women’s economy.

“First Women’s Bank will provide investors and clients with a platform to promote gender equity and help bridge the gender gap in access to capital,” said Markowitz.

First Women’s Bank’s organizers include:

Markowitz, former acting director of the Small Business Administration under President Barack Obama and a nationally recognized leader in SBA lending
Lisa Kornick, entrepreneur and an owner of the DMK restaurant group in Chicago
Melissa Widen, attorney, entrepreneur and executive with over 25 years of business and legal experience
Beth Wnuk, a 25-year veteran of the financial services industry in executive leadership roles
Amy Fahey, a banking executive who spent nearly 29 years at JPMorgan Chase and its predecessors in Chicago, holding senior positions in banking, finance and risk management

Additional members of the organizing group include Misha Blackman, Ann Danner and Kim Vender Moffat.

Markowitz will lead the management team as CEO and Fahey will serve as chair of First Women’s Bank’s board of directors.

“I look forward to working with this distinguished and diverse Board of Directors,” said Fahey. “The deep banking and financial services experience these individuals bring will help First Women’s Bank achieve its goals and deliver on its mission.”

The directors will include: