Soon after graduating from the University of San Diego, David Reiling got a job at First Interstate Bank in Los Angeles as a teller; he was 22 years old. What he didn’t realize was how dangerous the job could be. His first month, First Interstate Bank was robbed three times.

Over the next couple of months, Reiling says he started to learn the names of the FBI agents’ names who showed up. “I’m like, ‘This is great,’ ” says the St. Paul native, laughing. “There is no boring day here. Man, I am going to be a banker.’”

A year later, Reiling started at Citibank in Los Angeles. The branch he worked at was on a street that formed the border between rival gangs’ territory, explains his business coach Dan Sullivan, who has worked with Reiling for two decades.

“When David went out on business calls, he would bring two ties with him. One was blue, the other red. Halfway down the street, he would take off one tie and clip on the other that coincided with [the colors of] each gang. Members took notice and gave David the nickname Wonder Bread—it was a ‘wonder’ he was still alive.”

Reiling’s father, William, a successful St. Paul entrepreneur, had bought a couple of small community banks in the ’80s. In 1995, he bought Meridian National Bank (later renamed University National Bank) in the Frogtown neighborhood, then a lower-income area and home to many immigrants. David was getting married and preparing to move to New York to continue his career at Citibank, but he returned to the Twin Cities in October that year, lured by the chance to buy and run that third bank. 

By 2004, David owned University Financial Corp., and his father owned Franklin Bancorp. That same year, David took over running Franklin Bancorp as its new president.

As the banks continued to grow in assets and could make larger loans, their markets and customer bases started to converge and compete with one another.

Reflecting on the concept of what would become Sunrise Banks, Reiling says the community needed a bank that gave small businesses a fair deal. It’s always more expensive for these businesses to get a loan, he explains; banks view them as high-risk borrowers because of their limited operating history and relative lack of collateral.

So, in 2013, Reiling and his father decided to consolidate the individual banks into Sunrise, based in St. Paul. Reiling has been CEO since. Now, David Reiling’s Sunrise Banks have $2.7 billion in assets and 360 employees across its branches in Minnesota and
South Dakota.

What helped Reiling grow the business are prepaid credit cards Sunrise offers to individuals who lack the credit score to qualify for actual credit, to help them build credit history.

Reiling says when the company started out in the prepaid card business, it was a way to bring in more liquidity. Now, “it’s really about the human dimension of all this,” Reiling says. “Every bank account, every loan, we’re trying to build a relationship with that customer or that business. They’re trying to build a family or a business.” It’s the human potential that he finds the most remarkable.

Sunrise sells prepaid cards all over the country, says Reiling, and the earnings flow into its investments in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Helping others who lack advantages many take for granted is a great way to sum up Reiling’s career, Sullivan says. At least 60% of Sunrise’s lending is to low- to moderate-income customers. It also donates millions of dollars annually to nonprofits to assist low-income families.

“[David] made it so easy for people to have banking connections. He’s an entrepreneur who has a specialty in banking.”

—Dan Sullivan, Founder, Strategic Coach

In 2019, Reiling walked the walk for social change in another way, when Sunrise partnered with nonprofit Prepare + Prosper to set up an alternative to predatory payday lenders for thousands of “unbanked” low-income families, giving them access to affordable checking, savings, and small-loan programs.

Seven years later, he’s still illustrating why Sunrise is the epitome of a community bank. In March, Sunrise partnered with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines to give eight South Dakota-based nonprofits a combined total of $122,500 in grants. Two of the nonprofits support housing and financial education opportunities for Native Americans.

“That’s like a Tuesday for Sunrise,” Reiling says modestly.

Sullivan says what has surprised him is how Reiling could give to others as part of his client base and still make a profit, “because he made it so easy for people to have banking connections. He’s an entrepreneur who has a specialty in banking. He’s always looking for the next thing that can be best for his customers.”

Under Reiling’s direction, Sunrise became the first Minnesota bank certified as a B corp., a for-profit company that is externally certified for holding to social, environmental, and governance standards.

For Reiling, that certification isn’t a marketing tool, it’s an imperative. “These aren’t just certifications,” he says. “These are accountability frameworks that we have benchmarks to.”

Reiling’s influence extends far beyond the Twin Cities. As chair of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, he collaborates with more than 70 banks worldwide focused on sustainable economic development. His board service spans organizations from the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advisory board to The Entrepreneurs’ Organization and Northstar Education Finance.

Reiling’s journey has also included unlikely moments of inspiration. At a 1999 conference hosted by the Social Venture Network, he pitched his community bank vision to Jerry Greenfield, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, who challenged him to fully commit.

Reiling took it to heart. He decided to go all-in. Decades later, that conviction still drives him.

“If we can really use banking as that force for good and help somebody, that, to me, is the reason I get up in the morning.”

In an industry often defined by scale, efficiency and a relentless pursuit of profit, Reiling has built something more human. Every account, every loan, he insists, represents a person trying to build a life or a business. That philosophy has made Sunrise Banks a force not just in Minnesota, but in the evolving global conversation about what banking can be.