Purdy Bancshares, Inc.

Purdy Bancshares, Inc. points to a bank holding company, not a glossy consumer brand, and that means its main role is usually ownership and oversight rather than the front-line banking people notice every day. By our assessment, that kind of company is strongest when it keeps the business simple: deposits, lending, and the corporate structure that supports a bank underneath it. The drawback is distance, because holding companies are naturally less visible and less immediately useful to a casual customer than the bank operating under them. In practice the name suggests a small, conventional banking outfit with limited public drama and limited need for spectacle. Compared with larger banking groups it sounds modest and local, and the real action would be in the bank it controls, not in the name itself.