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At least that's the plan, according to Urban Trust Bank president and CEO Daniel C. Fischer, who says his bank, which recently opened a branch in Bethesda, has a strategy that will succeed despite the flagging economy and the tough times some other banks are having.

"We're not that worried about the down economy because we're not the typical bank. We don't have some of the same focuses," said Fischer, 47, a veteran banking executive who joined Urban Trust, a portfolio company of RLJ Cos. of Bethesda, in October. "We're focused on consumers … we're not going after big commercial loans."

Urban Trust Bank also has a Landover Hills branch — inside a Wal-Mart, as part of the bank's main strategy to locate inside the discount giant's stores — and is planning more branches in Maryland. The RLJ Cos. were founded by Robert L. Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television and majority owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats, among other ventures.

"Dan Fischer has a 20-year track record of producing exceptional growth and financial performance within retail banks," Johnson said in a statement. "I am [confident] that Dan has the necessary vision and passion to deliver on Urban Trust Bank's unique mission."

Before joining Urban Trust, Fischer was president of the Dayton, Ohio, region of KeyCorp of Cleveland, managing its regional banking centers and responsible for a balance sheet that included $562 million in loans, $1.2 billion in deposits and $1.6 billion in trust assets, according to Urban Trust information. Fischer has also been with Fifth Third Bancorp, a multistate banking company based in Cincinnati, and Associated-Banc-Corp of Green Bay, Wis.

The Bethesda branch of Urban Trust is trying to succeed as a standalone after a branch in Washington, which opened with much fanfare in the spring of 2007, did not.

"When I came in, we were not getting a lot of traction [with the downtown Washington branch] and we changed the focus," said Fischer, who lives in Orlando, Fla., with his wife and five children and spends about one week a month in Bethesda.

"We decided to make it more of a consumer retail, thrift savings and loan than a commercial bank, and we were paying a lot of money for that space. So we decided to consolidate our operations in Bethesda, in space we were already using for our mortgage operations. It's on the Metro level [at 3 Bethesda Metro] and we think it's a good location for attracting foot traffic."

"This strategy reflects our positive experience with our successful in-store locations, and positions Urban Trust Bank to implement a targeted expansion strategy in the capital region," said Kathy Boden-Holland, Urban Bank executive vice president, in a statement, adding that the bank is also looking for new locations "within the diverse communities of Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County."

Fischer said the Bethesda branch is doing well, with about $22 million in deposits. He said the Landover Hills Wal-Mart branch also "is doing well … by the end of '08, we'd like to be somewhere around $3 million in deposits there, and over three years the goal is to be in the $10 million range."

All told, he said, Urban Trust Bank has $102 million in deposits and $130 million in assets, with 13 Wal-Mart locations, in addition to the standalone branches in Bethesda and downtown Orlando. He said the bank has plans for 10 more Wal-Mart locations.

"We are also considering acquisitions," Fischer said. "With as many troubled institutions out there as there are, we're sitting on the sidelines and if there's an opportunity to acquire one and the price is right, we would do that.

"Our primary strategy is the Wal-Mart locations. There are a large number of customers that shop at Wal-Mart who would be less desirable for other banks, so we focus on those customers," he said. "We have opportunity checking accounts for those who may have had a problem with another bank. We will work with them on financial literacy and other programs to help them become a bankable customer."

It's not an uncommon strategy, says one observer.

"Every bank in America is looking for ways to serve the U.S. underbanked-unbanked markets," said banking consultant Paul Joegriner, former president of American Partners Bank in Bethesda and former executive with Chevy Chase Bank.

"If the underbanked are better off being served by banks, why are money service businesses thriving?" Joegriner asked. "Banks still face major barriers to this market: lack of trust, family history, perceived cost associated with banks and, most importantly, the ease of access to alternate service providers. Just being an African American-owned financial institution is not enough."

Another veteran banker also questions Urban Trust's plans.

"It's another big out-of-state bank coming in, thinking, ‘Look how successful Montgomery County is, let's go there and be successful,'" said John P. Hollerbach, president and CEO of HarVest Bank of Maryland in Rockville. "I say good luck, but the timing is questionable and I think it's rather presumptuous to say you're going to get the African-American market because you're an African-American bank.

"I'm not sure if it's best to try to compartmentalize things that way. From what I've found, most people, whether they are black or Indian or Asian, want to be a part of the community here … I think the bottom line for our community is, ‘Are you a part of the community, are you nesting here trying to make it work?'"

Fischer said he joined Urban Trust because he wanted to "bring my ideas and philosophies to an organization that would be well-capitalized and if we produced results we'd continue to grow. It was a leap of faith, so to speak, but I thought Bob Johnson was a tremendous businessperson, I had great respect for him, and I agreed with him it wasn't true that a minority-controlled bank cannot be as successful as a majority-controlled bank."

Fischer acknowledges that there is a "gap" in the banking market.

"There's check-cashing places, and there are banks," he said. "And nobody is trying to bridge the gap. A lot of banks don't understand that. When they talk about community reinvestment, they are just [talking about] window dressing. They don't understand hardworking people who don't have access to liquidity and cash. I agreed with Bob that there was a need for this and there was an opportunity for a lot of success with that market."