High fidelity: Atlanta bank warms up to Bradenton

Atlanta-based Fidelity Bank has entered the Greater Bradenton market, with the acquisition of suburban St. Louis-based First Bank's Florida portfolio.

A subsidiary of Fidelity Southern Corp., Fidelity Bank, with $3.1 billion in assets, purchased First Bank's $154 million in Florida customer deposits; $32 million in loans and other assets; and all eight area branches. Six of the branches are in Bradenton, one is on Longboat Key and another is in Palmetto.

Fidelity will pay a 1% premium on the deposits, according to a release.

“We welcome First Bank's customers and employees to the Fidelity family,” Fidelity President Palmer Proctor says in the release. “Florida is a very important part of our growth strategy and we look forward to serving the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA.”

The acquisition, pending regulatory approvals, could be completed by the third quarter.

First Bank entered the Bradenton market in August 2007 when it bought Coast Bank, which faced multiple problems, including losses and nonperforming loans. Coast Bank had once been one of the larger banks on the Gulf Coast, with $834.1 million in assets and 20 offices in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Pinellas counties.

Fidelity Southern's subsidiaries include Fidelity Bank and LionMark Insurance Co. In addition to banking, Fidelity provides trust and wealth management services and credit-related insurance products through branches in Georgia and Florida and an insurance office in Atlanta. Customers are primarily individuals and small and medium sized businesses.