Steven Schnall, founder of QuonticBank

Steven Schnall thinks that 1,000 community banks will close in the next year.

Even so, he’s confident the one he’s starting won’t.

Schnall, a mortgage finance expert who founded New York Mortgage Trust, has redesigned the erstwhile Golden First Bank in Great Neck under the name QuonticBank, with initial capitalization of $12 million to $13 million — half of which came out of his own pocket.

Despite his bleak community bank market outlook, Schnall said that smart lending will help his enterprise eschew failure. He said his background in mortgage financing was a key motivator in his decision to launch Quontic (“ontic” coming from the Greek word “ovtoc,” meaning factual existence, and “qu” being the prefix for the word “quality,” according to a Schnall spokesperson).

“The reason these banks are failing — in almost all cases — [is] bad loans,” Schnall said. “Our philosophy is, ‘we’re here to lend, but you have to be credit-worthy and you have to have skin in the game.’” [more]