BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Mid Am Inc. has completed its acquisition of MFI Investments Corp. of Bryan, Ohio, solidifying the banking company's effort to establish its own investment products arm.
In a prepared statement, Edward J. Reiter, chairman and CEO of the bank holding company, said, "This alliance will enable Mid Am to offer a full range of financial products to its retail customers."
Mid Am's step to control its own investment products operation comes as bad news for third-party marketing firm Invest. The bank terminated its relationship with Invest, joining a slew of banks that have decided to take their investment products operations in-house, said W. Granger Souder, executive vice president and general counsel.
"Although we had a fair amount of success with our third-party marketer, we decided to create our own destiny with our own operation," Mr. Souder said.
Mid Am is the ninth-largest bank holding company in Ohio. MFI is a full- service independent broker-dealer that clears its general securities through Bear Stearns Securities Corp.
MFI will be operated as an affiliate of Mid Am under its current name.