Sterling Bancorp of New York has agreed to buy PL Services LP, a specialty lender serving the temporary staffing industry.
The deal is expected to close next quarter. Sterling did not say how much it would pay.
PL Services, which does business as Resource Funding Corp., is a unit of a large European company, John C. Millman, the $2.1 billion-asset Sterling's president, said Monday when the deal was announced.
When that company decided to sell PL, Sterling jumped at the chance to buy it, he said.
"We love to finance the staffing industry," Mr. Millman said in an interview. "Their balance sheets may not be large, but they tend to do business with very strong credits, Fortune 500 companies. … This is an important niche for us."
PL would be renamed Sterling Resource Funding Corp. It offers a wide range of services to temporary staffing companies, from lending to tax preparation to payroll and collections help. According to Sterling, PL's customers generated about $435 million of gross billings last year.
Mr. Millman said its management team has agreed to stay on after the deal closes.
