Jim Dobbs

In the year's first instance of a credit union buying a bank, Georgia’s Own Credit Union in Atlanta has agreed to acquire nearby Vinings Bank. The Peach State is home to more than 300 banks, making it ripe for such deals.

With their costs soaring, farmers may need credit to make ends meet. Bankers see this as a chance to offer more loans, but worry that some borrowers may not be able to make their payments.

The process is expected to begin this summer and extend into late 2023, ultimately saving the Iowa company about $20 million annually.

Four-fifths of the state's community banks have disappeared since the start of the 2008 financial crisis. The founder of the newly chartered Scottsdale Community Bank calls the market "drastically underbanked."

Community bankers are excited that the Federal Reserve is poised to raise interest rates, which would make loans more profitable — unless rates rise so much they suppress demand.

James Blake plans to retire in May, culminating a 25-year run at the helm. Joseph Casey, the bank's president, was named his successor.

Costs climbed 11% in the fourth quarter, but the Georgia company says it remains on track to generate $175 million by the end of this year through a combination of expense cuts and revenue enhancements.

Customers are ramping up borrowing just as interest rates are poised to rise. That combination “sets us up nicely for 2022,” says CEO Brian Moynihan.

The economic and political conditions are in place for bank-credit union mergers to blow past last year's total of 13 despite the banking industry's strong opposition to them.

The companies originally hoped to complete the deal in late 2021. The buyer chalked up the delay to an overburdened Federal Reserve, rather than any problems with its application.