Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Staff report
warren
In one of the latest major personnel moves since First Place Bank was purchased by Michigan-based Talmer Bancorp in January, Jamie Lynch has been named the bank’s corporate vice president of commercial banking.
Pending regulatory approval, Lynch also will serve as executive managing director and regional president for Ohio, where First Place has 41 retail banking locations.
First Place Bank applied for bankruptcy in October 2012 after its holding company, First Place Financial Corp., determined that it could not pay down the debt it incurred when a number of its real-estate ventures in Michigan failed.
Talmer Bancorp, the holding company of Talmer Bank and Trust, made an offer for the bank and committed more than $200 million to purchase its assets, pay creditors and recapitalize the bank.
The deal was approved by a bankruptcy court in December and finalized by federal regulators a month later.
At the time the deal closed, Talmer named Thomas C. Shafer as First Place’s president and chief executive officer and Dennis Klaeser as its chief financial officer.
With its acquisition of First Place, Talmer Bancorp said in December that its assets totaled $4.5 billion in addition to $3.9 billion in deposits.
Shafer said in a statement Monday that one of Lynch’s primary goals will be growing First Place’s commercial loan portfolio “by identifying and creating lending solutions for local businesses throughout Northeast Ohio.”