Several prominent business leaders are expected to announce today the formation of a new community bank in Roanoke, sources told The Roanoke Times.

A Roan-oke business named Hometown Bank received corporation status in November, according to documents from the State Corporation Commission. William Rakes, a Roanoke attorney, is the registered agent whose name appears on the SCC documents.

And those involved in the formation of Hometown recently discussed plans to create a bank with Joseph Face, a commissioner of financial institutions with the Bureau of Financial Institutions in Richmond.

Though Face said their discussion was general, he suspects that "the announcement is their coming-out party."

If established, Hometown would compete head-on with Valley Bank, a growing, Roanoke-based community bank with deposits of $253 million as of June. It ranks seventh in local bank market share.

Face and other sources confirmed that Hometown leaders include: Warner Dalhouse, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Dominion Bank; Don Smith, chairman, CEO and treasurer of Roanoke Electric Steel Corp.; and Ed Murphy, president and CEO of Carilion Health System.

Dalhouse, Smith and Rakes declined comment for this story. Murphy was not available for comment.

The news comes at a time when banking in the Roanoke Valley is in transition.

In May, SunTrust Bank announced its merger with National Commerce Financial Corp., the parent company of NBC Bank. Ukrop's, a Richmond-based grocery chain, plans to build a store in Roanoke next year, bringing along First Market, the chain's in-store bank.

Nationally, mergers among some of the biggest banks have created mega-institutions such as Wachovia and Bank of America.

Wachovia holds the largest market share in the Roanoke Metropolitan Statistical Area at 25.3 percent. It had deposits of $1.2 billion as of June, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. SunTrust follows with 12.8 percent and deposits of $587 million.

Credit unions also are grabbing a share of the region's financial market. Member One, the largest credit union in Roanoke based on deposits, claimed $272 million in total shares and deposits as of September, according to the National Credit Union Administration.

On the heels of the successful development of Valley Bank, Roanoke's market is fit for more community banks, said Bruce Whitehurst, executive vice president of the Virginia Bankers Association in Richmond.

"If you look at the size of Roanoke and consider the fact that a lot of other smaller cities in Virginia have more community banks, it makes sense that someone would consider Roanoke a good market," Whitehurst said.

"Valley Bank has done really well there," he continued. "They've had good growth, had good profits. They clearly are a bank that's well run."

Valley Bank was founded in 1994 by a group of local businessmen including George Logan, Guy Byrd, William Elliot and Maury Strauss.

The bank opened with capital of $7.5 million, which exceeded the minimum of $5 million for a charter at that time.

In the last 10 years, the bank's stock value has appreciated by about 400 percent, and asset growth has exceeded the founders' projections, said Ellis Gutshall, president and CEO of Valley Bank. The bank had assets of $365 million in the third quarter of 2004, up 20 percent from $303 million in the third quarter of 2003.

Valley Bank's eighth branch is set to open in the first quarter of next year.

Hometown's formation would come at an opportune time in at least one respect. It's not unusual for a new bank to form in an area where there was a recent bank merger, Whitehurst said.

"When two banks merge and consolidate some operations, talented bank executives become available," he said.

But "fundamentally, they have to find that the market is attractive, have to feel like they have a good, strong business plan and an opportunity for another community bank in the Roanoke Valley," he added.

Robert Stauffer, a business professor at Roanoke College, said if a new bank starts up in Roanoke, it means that "banking regulators feel that growth in the economy is enough to support a bank."

But "there's still a ways to go" before Hometown could obtain a state bank charter, Face said.

The process could take six to 12 months, he said. A bank first must raise money, hire officers and employees and find a location.