Hampton Roads-based TowneBank announced Thursday that they will acquire Monarch Financial Holdings, Inc. and Monarch Bank.
The merger will create a $7.3 billion community bank that will serve Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Northeastern North Carolina.
The new bank will be the only community bank in the top 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States with a number 1 market share ranking.
“Our Towne family is humbled and excited to join hands with our long-time friends at Monarch,” said G. Robert Aston, Jr., Chairman and CEO of TowneBank. “Since the founding of our two banks in 1998, our companies have been built around the values of “serving others and enriching lives” while striving to build a great community asset that will help our communities grow and prosper.”
Brad E. Schwartz will join Aston on the Towne Corporate Management Group as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer along with TowneBank President and Chief Banking Officer, J. Morgan Davis; William B. Littreal, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer; and Clyde E. McFarland, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Neal Crawford, Monarch Bank President, will join Towne as President and Chief Executive Officer of Towne Financial Services Group. William T. Morrison, Chief Executive Officer of Monarch Mortgage will become Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TowneBank Mortgage and Realty Group succeeding Jacqueline B. Amato, currently TowneBank Mortgage CEO, who is planning to retire at the end of the 2016 calendar year.
Monarch Chairman, Jeffrey F. Benson, will join the TowneBank Corporate Board along with Monarch Directors, Elizabeth T. Patterson, Dwight E. Schaubach and Robert M. Oman. Schwartz, Crawford and Morrison will also join the board.
Monarch Directors, Virginia Sancilio Cross, Taylor B. Grissom, Lawton H. Baker and Joe P. Covington will be elected to the Towne Financial Services Group Board of Directors.
