First Busey in Champaign, Ill., used the sale of Visa Class B shares to offset the costs of a balance sheet restructuring.
The $12.3 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it sold $110 million of available-for-sale securities with a 1.56% yield at a $5.3 million pretax loss. Proceeds were deposited into an interest-bearing account at the Federal Reserve yielding 5.4%.
The company said it plans to eventually reinvest the proceeds into higher-yielding organic growth opportunities.
Separately, First Busey sold all of its remaining Visa shares for a pretax gain of $5.5 million.
The moves should increase annual net interest income by $4.3 million.