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Farmers completes merger with National Bancshares
CANFIELD
Farmers National Bank of Canfield became a seven-county institution after it closed the deal to merge First National Bank of Orrville into the Mahoning Valley bank’s footprint this week.
The $74-million merger, first announced in January, gives Farmers $1.6 billion in assets, about 425 employees, $1 billion in trust assets and 33 offices in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana, Stark, Wayne, Medina and Cuyahoga counties.
Farmers National Banc Corp., the holding company of Farmers National Bank, announced the completion of the merger Friday.
“We’re very pleased with the results,” said Kevin J. Helmick, president and chief executive officer of Farmers.
Mark Witmer, CEO of First National, said the merger reflects the bank’s legacy of growing through merging with other banks.
“We’ve grown organically,” he said.
First National was founded as the Orrville Banking Co. in 1881. The bank merged and acquired other institutions throughout its 134-year-old history. The mergers were with First National Bank of Dalton in 1968; Bank of Mount Eaton Co. in 1969; Farmers and Merchants Bank Co. of Smithville, Ohio, in 1972; and the Peoples Financial Corp. and its subsidiary, Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association of Massillon, in 2002.
In April, SNL Financial, a banking information consultant based in Charlottesville, Va., named First National as the only Ohio bank to appear on its 2014 list of America’s best-performing 100 community banks with assets between $500 million and $5 billion.
Witmer has joined Farmers as its senior executive vice president and chief community banking officer. James R. Smail and Howard J. Wenger, members of National Bancshares’ board of directors, also joined the Farmers’ board, making it have a total of 11 members.
Helmick said its not unusual for the merger process to take six months, and Farmers knew it would have to meet regulatory and shareholder approvals when the announcement was first made.
The bank will have two branches in Salem, but the company will address whether to keep both locations in the next couple of weeks.
Shares of National Bancshares Corp., the holding company of First National, are no longer traded on the OTCQX marketplace.
First National Bank office signs will be changed in the fourth quarter this year.
Founded in 1887, Helmick said Farmers expects to compete well in areas such as wealth management, mortgage lending and agriculture lending within the Valley and the Northeast Ohio region.
“Our footprint is a strong one,” he said.