Texas' Liberty Capital and Southwestern strike deal; BNY buys Archer

September 20, 2024 3:09 PM

In this week's banking news roundup: Liberty Capital Bancshares in Texas agreed to acquire in-state peer Southwestern Bancorp; BNY announced it will buy managed-account software company Archer; Louisiana is supporting crypto but pushing back on CBDCs; and more.

Texas community banks agree to merge

Liberty Capital Bancshares in Addition, Texas, agreed to acquire in-state peer Southwestern Bancorp.

The deal, slated to close in the fourth quarter, would create a $640 million-asset bank with higher lending limits and greater scale, Liberty said in a press release. Liberty has $415 million of assets, while the Boerne-based Southwestern has $225 million of assets. Financial terms were not disclosed. Following closing, the banks plan to continue business as usual in their respective markets, with all current leadership remaining in place at all locations. Liberty Capital is the parent of Liberty Capital Bank. Southwestern is the holding company for Texas Heritage Bank. The merged bank expects to hire more lenders and pursue ongoing organic growth, according to the release.

"As longtime peers and colleagues, we now have the opportunity to team up and grow Liberty Capital and Texas Heritage banks together," said Alan Morris, Liberty Capital's CEO. He called the transaction a "catalyst for organic growth." —Jim Dobbs

BNY buys managed-account software company Archer

BNY, the oldest bank in the U.S., said last week that it acquired Archer, which provides cloud-based software for managed accounts.

"Managed accounts are one of the fastest-growing investment vehicles in the asset management industry, enabling investment advisors and asset managers to offer customized portfolios to retail investors at scale," said Emily Portney, global head of asset servicing at BNY, in a press release announcing the deal. "By combining Archer's market-leading capabilities with BNY's broader footprint and expertise, BNY will offer fully integrated, end-to-end retail managed account solutions across our entire platform."

The deal is slated to close in the fourth quarter of 2024. The companies didn't disclose financial terms. — Chana R. Schoenberger

Louisiana pushes crypto, restricts CBDCs

Louisiana is supporting some digital asset payments while pushing back on others. Consumers and businesses can use bitcoin, the bitcoin Lightning network or Circle's USDC stablecoin to pay government agencies. The state began accepting the payments in September, Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming said Tuesday.

By including the USDC stablecoin, Louisiana is providing an option designed to mitigate the volatility of cryptocurrency. The state partnered with financial tech company Envolv and crypto company Bead to support the payments. The firms convert crypto to traditional currency before payments are processed, so the state won't store crypto on its balance sheet.

As Louisiana pushes these payments, it is cracking down on central bank digital currencies. In August the state passed a law banning CBDCs and restricted bitcoin mining by outside firms. The legislation's sponsor, Republican state Rep. Mark Wright, praised the state's support for crypto payments in the treasurer's release. Wright did not return a request for comment. —John Adams

Chain Bridge Bancorp files IPO

Chain Bridge Bancorp has filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange.

The $1.4 billion-asset bank hasn't established the size of its initial public offering but said in a filing that it plans to use the proceeds to repay borrowings under an unsecured line of credit and for general corporate purposes.

Piper Sandler, Raymond James & Associates and Hovde Group are underwriting the offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated Sept. 13.

Chain Bridge Bancorp is the parent of Chain Bridge Bank in Mclean, Va., the filing stated.

As of June 30, the bank had total deposits of $1.3 billion, with stockholders' equity at $94 million. The loan-to-deposit ratio was 23.4%, the filing stated.

Chain Bridge also had $499.2 million in excess deposits sold one-way to other banks through the IntraFi Cash Service, the filing stated. —Mary de Wet

NYCB adds more outsiders to build out commercial, private banking teams

New York Community Bancorp, which is trying to build back after severe turmoil this year, hired four outsiders to its commercial and private banking leadership teams. The parent company of Flagstar Bank announced in a press release that Joe Abruzzo will oversee regional commercial banking and corporate banking; Rita Dailey is now head of commercial deposits and payment solutions; Mike Mason will be in charge of credit products, commercial and private banking; and Mike Dalany will be in charge of specialized industries credit products.

Most recently, Abruzzo worked as head of commercial banking at Santander U.S. Dailey comes from Bank of the West, where she was in charge of small and medium enterprise products, while Mason was head of credit products at City National Bank and Dalany formerly oversaw credit underwriting and portfolio management teams at MUFG Union Bank.

Dalany will report to Mason, while Abruzzo, Dailey and Mason will report to Richard Raffetto, NYCB's head of commercial and private banking, according to the release — Allissa Kline