The traditional US community bank is facing a structural crisis, choked by Net Interest Margin compression and carrying a staggering median Commercial Real Estate (CRE) concentration of 195%. Seeking to move beyond the traditional private equity playbook is Building Better Banks (BBB), a turnaround model designed to restore structural health to the sub-$5B banking sector.
Building Better Banks operates on a proprietary “Bridge. Build. Offload.” turnaround model that injects strict operating and regulatory discipline into struggling institutions. By combining forensic financial analysis with phased capital deployment and human-validated technology, the firm fundamentally rebuilds bank foundations from the ground up.
Gada Elkenani, founder of Building Better Banks, discusses the diagnostic rigor required to future-proof community banking.
Tell us more about your company and its offering
Building Better Banks (BBB) is a specialist fund and turnaround platform focused on rescuing the sub-$5B US community banking sector. We deploy a proprietary model called “Bridge. Build. Offload.” to address the severe structural gaps left by Net Interest Margin compression and high Commercial Real Estate (CRE) concentrations.
Our offering is built around a structured timeline with phased capital draws that are strictly tied to specific remediation and build objectives. We centralise all of our analytical findings into a dedicated data room to drive total efficiency and accountability. Ultimately, we help institutions resolve regulatory matters, refine credit, modernise infrastructure, and build sustainable, revenue-generating deposit products.
What problem was your company set up to solve?
The traditional private equity playbook for banking is broken—it looks for quick efficiencies and branch consolidations, but it ignores the deeper operational reality. What we consistently find is that many community banks are missing core structural elements across their loan portfolios, investment strategies, human capital, and technology.
Furthermore, these institutions are under immense regulatory and financial strain. We set up BBB to fundamentally rebuild these foundations. We bridge the gap between financial numbers and operational realities, creating an environment where money moves safely, compliantly, and predictably.
How do you physically initiate a turnaround without hemorrhaging the bank’s remaining balance sheet?
We operate through a highly structured, two-pronged entry framework. First, we conduct a comprehensive review of all filed regulatory matters. Second, we perform a deep, forensic analysis of the bank’s financials.
The initial phase is entirely focused on resolving immediate regulatory issues—whether AML, KYC, or outstanding consent orders—while simultaneously implementing guardrails to prevent them from recurring. This framework is built in conjunction with a major law firm, which is critical to ensuring absolute alignment with authorities. We don’t view regulators as obstacles; they are critical stakeholders in saving the institution.
Where does technology implementation fit into your sequence?
Technology is an important vertical for us, but it is never a replacement for basic discipline. We only move into technology implementation, credit refinement, and product development after the regulatory and financial foundation is completely stabilised.
When we do deploy our platforms, such as our NestQuest and PocketPilot applications, we do not rely on them in isolation. Our testing has shown that automated tools still require human oversight. Because of this, we always incorporate experienced human capital to validate outputs, ensure quality, and, crucially, maintain strict compliance with fair lending standards and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) requirements.
What’s in store for the future?
The future of the sub-$5B banking sector depends entirely on moving away from superficial cost-cutting and embracing deep operational restructuring. For BBB, that means continuing to scale our “Bridge. Build. Offload.” framework to more institutions across the US.
As the regulatory landscape tightens, our goal is to show that compliance and structural resilience can become a bank’s ultimate competitive advantage. We will continue to expand our fund’s reach, ensuring that community banks can survive, thrive, and safely serve their local communities with robust, modern infrastructure.
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