Community Resource Bank becomes First Citizens
By GENE ZALESKI, T&D Staff Writer Friday, October 31, 20081 comment(s) | Default | Large
The bank that began here two decades ago as Orangeburg National will officially become First Citizens Bank and Trust on Friday.
Orangeburg-based Community Bankshares Inc., parent company of what is now Community Resource Bank, announced in June it was being purchased by First Citizens. The purchase was approved in the middle of October, with shareholders of SCB receiving $21 in cash for each outstanding common share.
Samuel L. Erwin, CEO of Community Bankshares, said the bank continues to actively seek placement opportunities for its employees. He said it will not have a clear idea on the overall impact until the end of the year.
“We have a number placed,” Erwin said.
The headquarters building on Founders Court employs about 35. Erwin said the future of the building, which will no longer operate as a bank headquarters, is uncertain.
He also said there are no plans to close the two bank branches in Orangeburg — one on Broughton Street and the other on Columbia Road. The signs will change to First Citizens the first week in December.
Despite a difficult 2007 in the face of a struggling real estate market and declining interest rate margins, bank officials have said the merger is not about recent challenges.
Earlier this year, the bank restructured its mortgage division, Community Resource Mortgage, resulting in the elimination of 14 jobs and an exit from the wholesale mortgage brokerage business.
The bank started in November 1987 when nine people in Orangeburg formed Orangeburg National Bank, later renamed Community Resource Bank. The bank expanded into Sumter and Florence, and entered the greater Columbia market with the acquisition of the Bank of Ridgeway in 2002.
First Citizens Bancorporation Inc. is the parent company of First Citizens Bank and Trust Company Inc., and The Exchange Bank of South Carolina Inc. First Citizens Bank offers commercial and retail banking services through 170 offices in Georgia and South Carolina.
n T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.
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orangeburger wrote on Oct 31, 2008 8:42 AM: