Short Takes: Mid Am Buys Marketer Of Investment Products

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Mid Am Inc. has completed its acquisition of MFI Investments Corp. of Bryan, Ohio, solidifying the banking company's effort to establish its own investment products arm.

In a prepared statement, Edward J. Reiter, chairman and CEO of the bank holding company, said, "This alliance will enable Mid Am to offer a full range of financial products to its retail customers."

Mid Am's step to control its own investment products operation comes as bad news for third-party marketing firm Invest. The bank terminated its relationship with Invest, joining a slew of banks that have decided to take their investment products operations in-house, said W. Granger Souder, executive vice president and general counsel.

"Although we had a fair amount of success with our third-party marketer, we decided to create our own destiny with our own operation," Mr. Souder said.

Mid Am is the ninth-largest bank holding company in Ohio. MFI is a full- service independent broker-dealer that clears its general securities through Bear Stearns Securities Corp.

MFI will be operated as an affiliate of Mid Am under its current name.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER