Retired bank president joins First National as finance chief

March 14, 2025 2:15 PM

In this week's banking news roundup: Retired banker Brad Schwartz is set to join First National as finance chief; Bar Harbor Bankshares agrees to acquire Guaranty Bancorp; CDFI Friendly America reveals new data on lending; and more.

Brad Schwartz

Retired bank president to join First National as finance chief

First National Corp., the parent company of First Bank, has recruited a former community bank president to be its next chief financial officer, the company said in a press release.

Brad Schwartz, who retired from TowneBank in December 2022, is set to join Strasberg, Virginia-based First National on March 31. Schwartz, 62, will oversee financial planning, strategy, budgeting, investor relations, account operations and regulatory filings, the release said. In October, First National completed the $47 million acquisition of Touchstone Bankshares, the third such purchase the $2 billion-asset bank has finalized in the past 10 years.

Schwartz will succeed Bruce Thomas, who's been First National's interim CFO since former finance chief Shane Bell resigned from the job three months ago. Schwartz, who was named president of TowneBank in 2021, is the former CFO and CEO at Monarch Bank, which was acquired by TowneBank in 2016. He will receive a base salary of $300,000, according to a regulatory filing. —Allissa Kline

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Bar Harbor Bankshares in Maine to acquire Guaranty Bancorp

Bar Harbor, Maine-based Bar Harbor Bankshares agreed to acquire Woodsville, New Hampshire-based Guaranty Bancorp in an all-stock deal valued at $41.6 million.

The combined company would operate under the Bar Harbor name. It would have about 60 branches in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont should the deal close as planned in the second half of 2025, the companies said in a press release.

Guaranty "operates in markets similar to ours and adjacent to our Northwestern New Hampshire and Vermont locations, making this a natural fit," Curtis Simard, president and CEO of Bar Harbor, said in the release.

The combined company would have about $4.8 billion in assets and $3.9 billion in deposits. Upon closing, Bar Harbor shareholders would own about 92% of the company. Guaranty President and CEO James Graham would join the boards of Bar Harbor and its Bar Harbor Bank & Trust unit. —Jim Dobbs

CDFI advocacy map reveals new data on lending

This week, CDFI Friendly America released new data from its CDFI Advocacy Map. Between 2005 and 2022, the most recent years for which data is available, every U.S. congressional district received financing for community development financial institutions. The map also identifies CDFI "opportunity markets," where the need is high for lending.

CFA developed the mapping tool to show how congressional appropriations reach communities through CDFIs. About 65% of CDFI financing went to states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.

"There is much work for CDFIs to do," CFA President Mark Pinsky said. "In a time of unprecedented headwinds for all federal programs, the CDFI Advocacy Map is a tool for legislators, CDFI leaders and investors to focus on the places they care about most." —Traci Parks

Citizens recruits its latest wealth advisor from Merrill Lynch

Citizens Financial Group, which has been building scale within its private bank and wealth management businesses, has hired wealth advisor Kris Reddaway to serve the southern California market, the Providence, Rhode Island-based company said in a press release.

Reddaway and two support staff joined Citizens this week from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a Citizens spokesperson said in an email. Reddaway reports to Tom Metzger, Citizens' head of private wealth advisors in the bank's private wealth division, the spokesperson said.

Reddaway will work closely with Citizens Private Bank, located in San Diego and Newport Beach, with a focus on ultra-high-net-worth clients, their families and businesses, according to the release. The goal is to form wealth management teams to work with the private bankers.

"We're trying to make sure each private bank team has its own wealth unit co-located" in the same geography, "so they can do joint calls," Citizens CEO Bruce Van Saun said last fall. —Allissa Kline

TowneBank gets regulators’ nod to finalize acquisition

TowneBank in Suffolk, Virginia, said it had secured all regulatory approvals needed to complete its $120 million cash acquisition of in-state peer Village Bank in Midlothian. The deal, announced in September, is expected to close in early April.

The $748 million-asset Village's franchise operates largely in the Richmond area, which is home to eight of its nine branches. After closing, TowneBank would have 17 branches and $2.1 billion of deposits in Richmond. In all, the combined company would have $17.8 billion of assets and deposits totaling $14.9 billion.

TowneBank entered the Richmond market in 2015, when it acquired the $1.1 billion-asset Franklin Financial. —Jim Dobbs

Flywire names chief payments officer

Global payments enablement and software firm Flywire has promoted Mohit Kansal to chief payments officer. He previously served as vice president of global payments.

In his expanded role, Kansal will be responsible for growing the company's global payment network and overseeing payment-related product management teams, including payment gateway, API, platform and payment experience. Kansal has worked with Flywire for nine years.

"By bringing together payments strategy, operations, partnerships, processing cost management, monetization and payment-related product management under one umbrella, we strive to accelerate innovation, better define a payments roadmap across our business, streamline payment processing, accelerate consolidation of payment assets, and enhance our payment experiences for clients and payers worldwide," Mike Massaro, CEO of Flywire, said in a statement. —Joey Pizzolato

Square Financial Services gets OK to offer loans on Cash App

Square Financial Services, the industrial bank of Jack Dorsey's Block, received approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to begin originating and servicing its consumer loan product, Cash App Borrow.

Cash App Borrow offers short-duration loans of up to $200 to Cash App customers, and was previously originated and serviced by First Electronic Bank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank.

"The bank allows us to provide a clear path to cash flow using our proven underwriting mechanisms for businesses and now, consumers who are not well served by the traditional banking and credit systems," Amrita Ahuja, Block's COO & CFO and executive chairwoman of the board of directors for SFS, said in a statement.

Cash App Borrow had nearly $9 billion in originations in 2024, with an average loan size of less than $100, according to Block. Square Financial Services also offers business loans and interest-bearing savings accounts. —Joey Pizzolato

Key announces $1 billion share buyback plan

Cleveland, Ohio-based KeyCorp said Thursday that the board had approved a $1 billion stock buyback plan, and the company expects to start repurchasing shares later this year.

Clark Khayat, chief financial officer at Key, said earlier this month that investors should expect to see the company start repurchasing stock this year. Still, the announcement comes as economic uncertainty due to tariff policies have rocked the market for the last two weeks. Key's share price was down about 9% for the year.

The amount of stock the $187 billion-asset bank will repurchase and its price weren't disclosed but will depend on market conditions, regulatory requirements, the stock price and other factors.

Many banks had been shoring up capital in recent years amid fears of new regulatory requirements. As the likelihood of such rules passing has fallen, many companies have started deploying some of their excess capital. Banks like Citigroup, M&T Bank, Prosperity Bancshares in Texas and Metropolitan Bank Holding in New York have also announced share repurchase programs this year. —Catherine Leffert

Axos opens shop to middle market businesses

Axos Financial said Thursday it launched a middle market banking division through its subsidiary to serve the health care, gaming, aerospace and defense sectors.

The move is Axos' latest to break further into the commercial banking space, after expanding its startup and private equity services in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Boston last year. The $24 billion-asset bank tapped Kristian Ilkov, who previously led Umpqua Bank's Southwest business, to head up the middle market unit.

Ilkov said in a prepared statement that San Diego-based Axos will look to build its middle market business in geographies and industries where it hasn't had a significant presence in the past, focused on companies with revenues from $25 million to $3 billion.

"We continue to expand our commercial lending capabilities and talent base through opportunistic additions to our team," said David Park, executive vice president of commercial banking and treasury management at Axos, in a prepared statement.

Park said Ilkov will build the team in a "methodical and strategic way." —Catherine Leffert