Six banking companies, led by First Fidelity Bancorp., announced that they have acquired portions of the Pennsylvania banking network of the failed Atlantic Financial Savings.
The 47 offices auctioned by the Resolution Trust Corp. re-opened Monday under the names of their new owners.
First Fidelity, bought 29 of the offices. Ten went to Integra Financial Corp. of Pittsburgh, and the rest to BT Financial Corp. of Johnstown, Fidelity Savings Bank of Pittsburgh, Parkvale Financial Corp. of Monroeville, and Southwest National Bank of Greensburg.
Growth Had Been Swift
Atlantic Financial, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Bala Cynwyd, was one of the nation's fastest-growing thrifts in the 1980s and owner of one of the thrift industry's biggest credit card portfolios.
It was seized by regulators in January 1990 and had been on the RTC's selling block since June 1991.
An affiliate in West Virginia with $ 535 million in assets was recently sold to One Valley Bancorp, Charleston.
Almost $1 Billion Added
First Fidelity, based in Lawrenceville, N.J., acquired the biggest piece of the Atlantic Financial franchise for its Fidelity Bank unit in Philadelphia. the 29 locations in Philadelphia and four nearby counties brought $991 million in 106,000 deposit accounts.
The $29 billion-asset First Fidelity paid $14.4 million for the deposits, a premium of 1.4%. It took only an insiginificant amount of Atlantic Financial loans: less than %500,000 collateralized by deposits, according to spokesman Paul Levine.
Rebounding from earnings problems in recent years, First Fidelity has been an active buyer of RTC properties to expand or fill gaps in its branch network.
Acquisitions this year included New Jersey branches of Ensign Federal Savings Bank, Alexander Hamilton Federal Savings, and City Federal Savings Bank, once the state's largest thrift.
A Base in Philadelphia
Anthony Terracciano, chairman and chief executive officer of First Fidelity, issued a statement calling Philadelphia "a core part of our franchise." He said the Atlantic acquisition "demonstrates our resolve" to grow in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Among Philadelphia-based banks ranked by deposits, Fidelity was a distant second to the lead bank of CoreStates Financial Corp. at mid-1991 with $6 billion.
The Atlantic deposits will increase Fidelity's lead over No. 3 Provided National Bank, a PNC Financial Corp. unit, which had $5.8 billion.
Integra Expands in West
Integra Financial Corp. of Pittsburgh, a growing company in the west part of the state with $8.7 billion in assets, bought five Atlantic Financial offices for its lead subsidiary, Integra Bank/Pittsburgh, and five others for Integra Bank/South, based in Uniontown.
The Pittsburgh bank added $157.2 million in deposits, the Uniontown bank $228.9 million.
They paid a blended premium of about $2.2 million, or 0.6% of the total. Included in the package were $123,000 in loans for Integra Bank/South.
Integra agreed in September to acquire Landmark Savings Association, the second-largest thrift in Pittsburgh, which would add another $1.4 billion in assets.
Related Transactions
In the other Atlantic Financial transactions last week:
* Johnstown Bank and Trust Co., the lead bank of the $900 million-asset BT Financial Corp., took over the Somerset office with $28 million in deposits. It said it has an option to buy certain fixed assets.
* Fidelity Savings Bank bought the branches in Allison Park and Bloomfield with $72.87 million in deposits, bringing Fidelity to eight branches and $254 million in assets.
* Prakvale Financial Corp. added four offices in Crafton, Greentree, Norwin, and New Kensington, to its Parkvale Savings Bank subsidiary, which previously had 25 offices and more than $750 million in assets. The Atlantic Financial insured deposits of $140 million cost a premium of $947,000, or 0.7%.
* Southwest National Bank, which had $625 million in assets on Sept. 30, acquired the $42 million in deposits of Atlantic's Latrobe branch.
