MVB to Expand into Northern Va. with Mortgage Deal

MVB Financial (MVBF) in Fairmont, W. Va., is extending the reach of its mortgage business.

The $630 million-asset company has agreed to buy Potomac Mortgage Group in northern Virginia for $19 million in cash and stock.

"Northern Virginia is one of the best markets for mortgage banking in the country, and we are ecstatic to be in this growing and vibrant area," Larry Mazza, MVB's chief executive, said in a press release Monday.

MVB has operations in Marion, Monongalia and Harrison counties in north-central West Virginia and Berkeley and Jefferson counties in the state's eastern panhandle. Potomac Mortgage has offices in the Virginia cities of Fairfax, McLean and Reston.

The deal is scheduled to close later this month. The combined operation is "expected to become a $1 billion-mortgage-production unit," MVB's release said.

Potomac Mortgage would operate under its current name and be a unit of MVB's MVB Bank. Ed Dean, Potomac Mortgage's chief executive, would oversee all of MVB's mortgage operations. Potomac Mortgage has 68 lenders and other employees and another 30 workers in an operations center where it has a 50% stake. The operations center would also serve MVB's overall mortgage operations.

MVB this spring launched a wealth management division.

MVB's 2012 profits through Sept. 30 rose 38% from a year earlier, to $2.7 million.