Dollar Bank to Enter Virginia via Acquisition

Dollar Bank in Pittsburgh has agreed to buy Bank @lantec in Virginia Beach.

The $7.4 billion-asset Dollar said in a press release Tuesday that it expects to complete the acquisition in the fourth quarter. It did not say how much it agreed to pay for the $112 million-asset Bank @lantec.

The acquisition would be Dollar's first in more than 30 years and would allow it to enter Virginia. Bank @lantec, which converted from a credit union to a mutual institution in 2004, has four branches. Dollar said it would keep all of Bank @lantec's employees.

"We believe independent mutual banks are important financial options for our members and our communities," Jim McQuade, who became Dollar's president and chief executive last month, said in the release. The acquisition "permits us to enter a new market and utilize our extensive resources to provide more services to their members. Our hope is that this type of merger between two mutual banks can be a role model for other mergers with mutual banks in the future."

Susan Ralston, Bank @lantec's president and chief executive, would run Dollar's Virginia operations as chief operating officer. "This merger will further advance the position of having a stronger mutual institution available as an option to compete with national stock based banks in this region," she said in the release.