Forbright Bank, headquartered in Chevy Chase, raised $142 million in its June Nasdaq debut. The digital-focused lender sold 7.9 million shares at $18 apiece, the low end of its $18 to $20 marketed range, giving the company an $870 million valuation, The Daily Record reported.
Shares opened at $17.50 on June 11 and fell 2.8% on their first day of trading under the ticker FRBT.
Founder and executive chairman John Delaney rang the opening bell at Nasdaq's Times Square headquarters that morning, according to Nasdaq's event page. Delaney told Bethesda Magazine the team traveled to New York for the ceremony and that key employees who helped build the company were there.
Forbright operates out of Chase Tower, the 12-story building at 4445 Willard Ave. that the bank purchased in May for $36 million, according to land records first reported by The MoCo Show. The roughly 245,000-square-foot property includes 227,000 square feet of office space and 18,000 square feet of retail, with a ground-floor banking hub. R3 Ventures co-invested in the deal, and JBG Smith stayed on as property manager.
The bank has been Chase Tower's anchor tenant since 2020. Forbright said the purchase converts rent into an owned asset and gives the company room to grow, according to The MoCo Show.
Forbright started as Congressional Bank, a small community bank established in 2003. Delaney, a former U.S. representative for Maryland's 6th Congressional District who served from 2013 to 2019, said he got involved as a passive investor before his political career. After leaving Congress, he led a $369 million equity infusion in 2021 and rebranded the bank as Forbright in 2022, The Daily Record reported.
The company employs about 500 people, with more than half living in the D.C. area, Delaney told Bethesda Magazine. He lives in Potomac.
"I think Montgomery County, Maryland, is one of the best places in the country to start and build a business, you know, full stop," Delaney told Bethesda Magazine. He credited the county's educated workforce, proximity to the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Standards and Technology, and family-friendly communities.
The bank's strategy centers on digital deposits and nationwide middle-market lending rather than traditional branch banking. In August, Forbright announced it would sell its Potomac and North Bethesda branches, a customer service hub in McLean, Virginia, and about $750 million in local deposits to Trustar Bank for a premium of roughly $19 million, according to a company press release.
CEO Don Cole said in the press release that the branch sale reflects Forbright's push to concentrate on its national digital platform. The bank's digital arm, launched in 2022, serves more than 100,000 accounts, the company said.
The Trustar sale is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval.
