Leaders from QCR Holdings, Inc., parent company of Quad City Bank & Trust, rang the NASDAQ closing bell to mark their 30th anniversary earlier this year. CREDIT NASDAQ
When QCR Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Quad City Bank & Trust, was created 30 years ago, bankers warned the founders, Mike Bauer and Doug Hultquist, against creating what was then known as Quad City Holdings, Inc. as a publicly traded entity. “Thankfully an investment banker from the Twin Cities convinced Mike and me […]
When QCR Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Quad City Bank & Trust, was created 30 years ago, bankers warned the founders, Mike Bauer and Doug Hultquist, against creating what was then known as Quad City Holdings, Inc. as a publicly traded entity.“Thankfully an investment banker from the Twin Cities convinced Mike and me that the growth potential here was so good we ought to go public right out of the blocks and raise more capital,” Mr. Hultquist said. The same Minnesota banker also advised the men that the State of Iowa required only $4 million to start a bank, but he was convinced the new QCBT would outgrow that total in no time.“So we decided we’d go public and that we’d raise between $6 million and $10 million,” Mr. Hultquist said in a recent interview. “Well, we actually cut it off at $14 million. And thank goodness we did, because we needed that to grow like we did those first three years.”Today, QCRH has 36 banking locations in Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois. The company had $8.5 billion in assets, $6.5 billion in loans, and $6.5 billion in deposits at the end of 2023. When forming the new holding company decades ago, the founders also hoped making its parent company a publicly traded entity would persuade its investors to also become QCBT customers. “And many, many of them did so because they wanted to support what they had invested in,” Mr. Hultquist said.Three decades later, QCRH is not only nearing the $10 billion assets threshold, it’s celebrating QCBT’s 30th anniversary and readying to break ground on a new facility near Bettendorf’s TBK Bank Sports Complex. Also, in late March, the Moline-based QCR Holdings was named a Top 50 Large Community Bank by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Because of its growth, QCRH is reaching a pivotal time. “The level of regulation increases pretty dramatically when you get to $10 billion so we’ve had to hire more compliance, technology and regulatory people, so it adds to the overhead but that’s just part of the game,” Mr. Hultquist told the Quad Cities Regional Business Journal.Looking forward, QCRH announced on Feb. 28 the purchase of land for its new corporate headquarters in Bettendorf, at the southeast corner of the intersection of Forest Grove Drive and Middle Road. The location also will be the site of a new QCBT consumer banking branch – its sixth branch. Construction is expected to begin late this year, QCRH said in a news release. No other details about the building were released.But QCRH’s announcement did say that QCBT will continue to operate its current branch in Moline and that its parent company remains committed to maintaining operations in the Illinois Quad Cities.Quad City Bank & Trust is one of four wholly owned subsidiary banks within QCR Holdings. Employees within the holding company provide support services for the banks while each bank manages products, clients, and community involvement at the local level. QCR Holdings, Inc., serves the bi-state Quad Cities; Cedar Rapids, Cedar Valley, and Des Moines/Ankeny, Iowa; and the Springfield and Joplin, Missouri, communities through its wholly owned subsidiary banks.
