The seller announced the delay to give it time to solicit more votes in favor of the deal. It plans to push a June 13 meeting to next month, when shareholders will decide whether to approve the transaction.

After shares dropped in the aftermath of recent failures, most banks demonstrated resilience and investors started to buy back into the sector.

Paulding County, northwest of Atlanta, is Georgia's second-fastest growing county, but after years of consolidation just one community bank has a branch there.

Beach Cities Commercial Bank is set to open in Southern California next week. Rising interest rates and consolidation in recent decades have created more opportunities for investors to form new banks, experts said.

Bankers and a key government supervisor say the downfalls of multiple regional lenders reminded regulators that traditional M&A is better for the industry than failed-bank-deals.

Nusenda's agreement to buy Western Heritage Bank would be its first bank acquisition and the first such combination in the state.

The parent of the $1.1 billion-asset CBI Bank & Trust said it would buy McLaughlin Holding and its SENB Bank unit.