Heartland BanCorp in Whitehall, Ohio, has added the state’s lieutenant governor to its board. The company said in a press release that Jon Husted became a director on May 17. He joined the $1.4 billion-asset bank’s board in March. Husted “brings an enormous amount of knowledge, relationships and experience that will be beneficial to the board as we continue to grow our franchise throughout Ohio,” Scott McComb, Heartland’s chairman, president and CEO,

The president and CEO of Northwest Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, has died. The $14.4 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that Ronald Seiffert, 65, died unexpectedly of natural causes. He was also the company’s chairman. Northwest said that William Harvey Jr., its chief financial officer, was named interim president and CEO. Timothy Fannin, the company’s lead director, was named interim chairman. “Bank employees have been informed of the news and Northwest

Farmers and Merchants Bancshares in Hampstead, Md., has found a successor for its retiring CEO.The $718 million-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that Gary Harris will become its president on July 1. He will succeed James Bosley Jr. as CEO at the end of this year. Farmers and Merchants worked with Kaplan Partners, a Philadelphia executive recruitment firm, on the search process, which evaluated bankers from Boston to Atlanta. Harris

Organizers of Integro Bank in Phoenix have cleared another major hurdle. The group said in a press release that it has received conditional approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Organizers must raise at least $27.9 million before being cleared to open. Integro received conditional approval from the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions earlier this month. "Combining this federal regulatory approval with our state regulatory approval and our recently obtained bank

The nation’s biggest banking associations are opposed to the creation of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The Federal Reserve had been seeking comments on whether or not to pursue a US CBDC, though the central bank has said it would prefer a legislative mandate before going down that path. The comment period ended on Friday. The American Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America and the Bank Policy Institute expressed

South State in Winter Haven, Fla., is planning to close 30 branches. The $46 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that 16 of the closures will be in Florida, six in South Carolina, five in Georgia and the rest in Virginia and North Carolina. The branches represent about 10.5% of the company’s branch network, based on the number of locations it had in mid-2021. South State said the closures were part

JPMorgan Chase has hired a former PayPal executive to serve as its head of fintech partnerships for its commercial bank. The $4 trillion-asset company said in a press release that it had hired Peggy Mangot to fill the position. She will oversee a team that will design, develop and implement strategies. Mangot was in charge of leading investments in fintech, commerce, infrastructure and crypto for PayPal Ventures. Prior to joining PayPal, she

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is paying closer attention to banks’ balance sheets after rising interest rates led to higher levels of unrealized losses in securities portfolios. While the banking industry has “high liquid asset levels,” Martin Gruenberg, the FDIC’s acting chairman, said in a Tuesday press release that “elevated levels of unrealized losses could increase the risk of actual losses should banks sell investments at a loss to meet liquidity