SI Financial Group Inc. in Willimantic, Conn., has a deal to buy Fairfield Financial Mortgage Inc. in Danbury.
Fairfield, founded in 1998, has branches in Texas, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania and is a licensed mortgage banker in eight other states, including California and Florida. It has originated more than $386 million of loans in the last 12 months.
SI Financial, the holding company for the $714 million-asset Savings Institute Bank and Trust Co., said the deal, announced Tuesday, is expected to close next quarter. Fairfield would be renamed SI Mortgage Group Inc. and operate as a subsidiary of Savings Institute Bank and Trust.
Rheo A. Brouillard, SI Financial's president and chief executive, said in a press release that the acquisition would give Fairfield access to more resources and let it offer more services. Because Fairfield would be a unit of a federally chartered thrift, it also would be free to make mortgages in all 50 states, he said.
Fairfield's founder, Charles L. Levesque, said in the release that he would remain its president, and that all its roughly 100 employees would be retained.
