A southern Florida insurance company plans to move into banking.
21st Century Holding Co., which is based in Plantation, announced last week that its board had voted to apply for a thrift charter. The company has been steadily diversifying into areas including tax return preparation and consumer loans.
With the addition of a thrift, 21st Century would become a "complete financial services company," said Edward Lawson, the president and CEO.
Matthew Korshoff would be the president and chief executive officer of the thrift, to be called Fedfirst Bank. Mr. Korshoff has 10 years of banking experience and was Mr. Lawson's banker for many years.
Mr. Korshoff had been a vice president with Republic Security Bank.
Fedfirst will probably not open its doors for a year, because of the backlog of thrift applications at the Office of Thrift Supervision, Mr. Korshoff said.
"For years banks have been trying to get into the insurance business and now the opposite is happening," Mr. Korshoff said.
He predicts that as many as 70% of 21st Century's 100,000 customers would do business with the de novo bank. Fedfirst would have bricks-and- mortar branches and also operate over the Internet, Mr. Korshoff said.
And bank products would be available through 21st Century's 39 offices in the Plantation/Fort Lauderdale area.
Mr. Korshoff said State Farm Insurance Cos. is a key competitor; he said he was recently asked to open a State Farm checking account.
While Fedfirst "hopes to mirror" the new thrift operations of State Farm, Mr. Korshoff said, it will serve "average" clients, but focus on 21st Century customers who seek nonstandard insurance.
