For the third consecutive year, the number of de novo applications is set to fall short of levels seen in 2018 and 2019, a trend experts predict is due to increasing capital requirements, technology, and workforce expenses. Neil Grayson, partner and head of the Financial Institutions Corporate and Regulatory Practice Group at Nelson Mullins, told the publication, “The cost to forming a de novo can be anywhere from 30% to 50% more than the capital that had been needed before the Great Recession.”