Bank names usually don’t catch your eye, but bank313 clearly has a ring to it.
The 313 moniker — an original phone area code assigned to Detroit in 1947 — is everywhere now. But Rob Farr, president and CEO of First State Bank of Michigan and bank313, recalls that he was watching a Detroit Pistons game maybe 18 months or so ago and the NBA team was wearing their 313 jerseys.
He was in the midst of creating a Detroit-centric banking division with a team of others that would focus on small business lending. They needed a name and the Pistons jerseys offered the inspiration.
“And I thought bank313 says it all,” said Farr, 69, whose nearly 45-year banking career has involved working at large regional banks in southeastern Michigan, including the former Michigan National Bank, as well as launching some upstarts in Michigan, like the former Bank of Birmingham, later bought by the Bank of Ann Arbor; and Mi Bank in Bloomfield Hills.
Farr moved to Traverse City about five years ago, leaving Mi Bank in 2023. He is a shareholder of Mi Bank but is not involved in any management there.
Many, of course, are uncertain about where the economy is heading right now, particularly in light of a slowing job market.
Is now the right time to be launching a new twist in banking?
Farr noted that Bank of Birmingham opened in 2006 — right before the financial crisis in 2007-2008.
“Then I opened Mi Bank and went into the pandemic,” Farr said. “So I don’t have a very good track record of opening banks at the right time.”
Yet, he said, good opportunities to make loans were found during both times of financial stress in the economy.
“There is a lot of uncertainty out there,” Farr acknowledged. He pointed to the price of gold, which closed at an all-time high of $4,374 per troy ounce Oct. 20 and saw a nearly 60% gain in 2025 before a selloff later that week.
Gold has typically been viewed as a flight to safety during uncertain economies.
Yet, Farr said, so many good things are happening in the Motor City that the bank is optimistic about lending opportunities.
Information about bank313 can be found at www.313bank.com. It doesn’t do car loans, mortgages or home equity lines of credit. It’s a bank that is making a pitch to offer small business loans, typically of $500,000 and less, in a much faster fashion than other lenders.
“In Detroit, we’re really focused entirely on small business,” Farr told the Detroit Free Press.
A news conference was set for 11 a.m. Monday at TechTown Detroit at Wayne State University.
The bank is formally rolling out its strategic alliance with Southfield-based Calibo, which was founded by entrepreneur Raj Vattikuti in 2020, and promoting its lending platform that uses artificial intelligence tools and advanced technologies to offer small business owners a quicker turnaround time on loan approvals.
Ultimately, bank313 is aiming to get small business owners an answer — yes or no — on a loan application in as quickly as 24 hours. The bank has been working with Calibo about a year to develop a platform that can allow the bank to respond much more quickly to potential borrowers.
For a small business owner, Farr said, it’s important to know as early as possible if a loan will be made or not.
He noted that bank313 is a beta test bank for Calibo’s new platform, which ultimately could be used by other banks.
The Calibo platform at bank313, Farr expects, will be rolled out in January.
As the system initially gets up and running, Farr said, loan approvals should be made within five business days, instead of a more traditional 30-day wait time.
“Our goal would be to do it within 24 hours,” he said.
He acknowledged that some national platforms offer a quick turnaround but not with a specific focus in Detroit.
Business loans are expected to be made to restaurants, manufacturing companies, service companies and others. bank313 will not be involved in the still complicated regulatory arena of cannabis lending.
While many banks and credit unions offer loans for small businesses in southeastern Michigan, Farr said a niche remains for offering smaller loans to small business owners in Detroit.
“Most of the banks are focused on bigger loans, the bigger the better,” Farr said. “We’re specifically focused only on small business.”
The new digital bank313 an is operational division of the state-chartered First State Bank of Michigan, part of Traverse City bank holding company GTSB Financial Inc.
The investors initially raised $19 million to buy First State Bank of Decatur, one of the oldest in Michigan established in 1870. That bank had faced, Farr said, succession management issues as well as higher costs associated with technology.
The list of primary organizers of GTSB Financial includes Farr; Gregg Bigger, founder, president and of the Bank of Santa Barbara in California, who was born and raised in Michigan; Connie Deneweth, a managing member of Copper Ridge LLC and former CEO of Traverse City State Bank, and other business leaders, many with Traverse City connections.
First State Bank of Michigan is one of the smallest banks in Michigan with $65 million in assets, including $9 million in assets at bank313.
bank313 has been in the Detroit market for roughly eight months and has already made $8 million in loans since June, Farr said, without using the Calibo system. Many early connections and referrals were made through accountants and attorneys.
The only bank branch in the First State Bank group that exists now is in downtown Decatur, a rural community in southwest Michigan that sits midway between Detroit and Chicago on I-94 and is known for U-pick farms in the area and pickles. The Decatur bank remains more of a traditional community bank.
Another bank in the group — under the name Grand Traverse State Bank — is expected to open a branch in early 2026 in downtown Traverse City.
The new bank313 does not have any physical branches. It is mainly a digital operation. It operates now out of the WeWork shared office location on Woodward in Campus Martius. No branches for bank313 are planned.
Michigan has 64 state-chartered banks, according to the state Department of Insurance and Financial Services. The most recently newly chartered banks are Community Unity Bank, founded in Birmingham in 2023, Credit Union Trust founded in 2019 in Troy, and Mi Bank founded in 2019 in Bloomfield Hills. Currently, no online-only or digital banks are chartered in Michigan.
Contact personal finance columnist Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on X @tompor.
