Georgia

Colony will also gain a loan production office in Atlanta when the transaction closes.

Ameris has agreed to pay $751 million for Atlanta-based Fidelity; the combined company would have $16 billion in assets.

Morris State will pay $24 million for the parent of Farmers & Merchants Bank.

John Corbett has known the leaders of National Commerce since he helped launch CenterState in 1999. It’s a big reason CenterState is breaking from tradition to hire those executives once it buys the Alabama bank.

The Florida company will have more than $16 billion in assets, along with increased scale in Georgia, when it buys National Commerce.

The company is selling 14 branches, including several around Chattanooga, Tenn., and its mortgage business to FB Financial so it can focus on its Atlanta operations and national lending businesses.

The $20 million-asset Stephens-Franklin Teachers Credit Union will merge into Peach State later this week.

Strong net interest income and other factors made up for a drop in investment banking and other noninterest income at the Atlanta bank, which reported double-digit earnings growth.

Governors in Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin used International Credit Union day as an opportunity to recognize the industry.

More than half of all federally insured credit unions have less than $50 million of assets. But challenges, including increased demands for technology, are making it harder for small institutions to thrive, forcing some to look for merger partners.