Kansas City, Mo. ? A small-town bank that drew $2.2 million in deposits from across the country because of its funny name may be coming back.

A small east-central Kansas bank has asked regulatory approval to open a branch in Tightwad, Mo., a small community on Missouri 7 between Clinton and Warsaw.

UMB Bank closed its novelty Tightwad branch in January. The branch, originally opened in 1984 by a Windsor bank, attracted attention – and bank deposits – from as far away as Alaska from customers wanting checking accounts drawn on the Tightwad Bank.

The $13 million Reading State Bank in Reading, Kan., has proposed its first Missouri branch be placed in Tightwad. The bank is led by Don Higdon, a former UMB banker and Reading’s chairman.

Higdon confirmed his bank’s regulatory request for the branch but said he wouldn’t discuss details until the request had been approved.

Reading is north of Emporia in Lyon County.

Bankers opened the Tightwad branch in 1984, expecting it to share in the predicted economic boom in Tightwad from the newly opened Truman Lake.

Media reports about the Tightwad bank spread across the U.S. and Canada with up to a dozen checks arriving daily at the bank, asking for an account and a batch of Tightwad checks. In two years, customers gave the bank $2.2 million in deposits.

But the growth never came as Truman Lake became a haven for anglers, not the boaters and water-skiers that populate the Lake of the Ozarks.

Tightwad remains tiny with a population of less than 100 people and UMB closed the branch to cut costs, urging customers to do business as branches in Clinton and Warsaw.