BofI to Buy $125M in Deposit Accounts from First Marblehead Unit

BofI Holding in San Diego has agreed to buy $125 million in deposit accounts from a unit of First Marblehead.

The $4.8 billion-asset BofI said in a press release Tuesday that its BofI Federal Bank agreed to buy individual checking, money market savings and CD accounts from First Marblehead's Union Federal Savings Bank. BofI will receive about $125 million in cash to assume more than 2,000 deposit accounts at par with no purchase premium.

The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.

"This low-cost acquisition... will continue to build our core checking, savings and money market funding, which represented 77% of our total deposit balances" at Sept. 30, Greg Garrabrants, BofI's president and chief executive, said in the release.

BofI is still waiting on regulatory approval for its pending purchase of certain assets and deposits at H&R Block Bank. The company noted that the First Marblehead deposit deal has its own, separate review.