TowneBank and Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Monarch Bank, announced a merger agreement Thursday.
The merger, in which TowneBank will acquire Monarch, will create a $7.3 billion hometown bank serving Hampton Roads, Richmond and northeastern North Carolina.
With the merger, the combined companies will rank No. 1 in deposit market share — a figure that indicates how much money is deposited in a bank compared to the total amount deposited in all banks in a given area — for the Hampton Roads market with a share of 20.64 percent.
“Our Towne family is humbled and excited to join hands with our longtime friends at Monarch,” said G. Robert Aston, Jr., Chairman and CEO of TowneBank in a news release. “Since the founding of our two banks in 1998, our companies have been built around the values of ‘serving others and enriching lives’ while striving to build a great community asset that will help our communities grow and prosper.”
Based on financial reports filed Sept. 30, the companies will combine to hold roughly $7.3 billion in assets, $5.8 billion in deposits and $5.4 billion in loans.
Brad E. Schwartz, the CEO of Monarch Financial Holdings Inc., told WYDaily he hopes the transition from Monarch Bank to TowneBank will be smooth for current customers of Monarch Bank.
“The goal will be to take care of our customers and have as little to no impact on the customers as possible,” he said, adding more details about the transition process will be announced closer to May or June.
