Today marks the start of the second full week that Jefferson City-based Premier Bank's branches are operating as new parts of Columbia-based Providence Bank.
And, from the new owner's perspective - things are looking good.
"The transition has gone even better than I expected," said Brett Burri, Providence Bank's president and CEO, during a telephone interview late last week. "We've gained a lot of tremendous and talented employees.
"And they've pitched in and made the transition go very, very smoothly."
Of course, Burri and other leaders of both banks knew the announcement was coming at some point, because it takes weeks - sometimes up to 120 days - for the FDIC to find someone willing to assume control of a bank that's been defined as a "failing" institution.
"We have been looking for acquisition opportunities for some time, and we certainly want to grow our franchise," Burri said. "We felt like the Premier opportunity was a good fit for a couple of reasons.
"Number one, they had a good, solid, well-run branch network. And, secondly, the trade area in which they operated was not too far away from our existing markets."
He noted Jefferson City's closeness to Columbia, where Providence Bank began operating with a loan production office in 2007, and the St. Charles-St. Louis area's closeness to the Lincoln County branches in Winfield and Elsberry, where Providence Bank actually began as the Bank of Lincoln County in 1888.
"We renamed it Providence Bank in 2008 and moved (the charter) to Columbia," Burri explained. "It was really done to prepare for expansion. ...
We just felt like, from a marketing perspective, it would be difficult to market the "Bank of Lincoln County' in Boone County."
He noted that Providence Bank has weathered the current financial crisis better than many banks.
"We, I think, have a very conservative but pro-active lending policy, and you can look at our loss-history going back decades and we're a wellrun organization," he said.
"We have not had some of the credit issues that other financial institutions have had."
Federal and state regulators noted Premier Bank had been being watched since the end of 2007, primarily because its large commercial lending portfolio had experienced numerous repayment problems.
As FDIC spokesman Greg Hernandez explained: "The bank experienced significant losses in its acquisition, development and construction loan portfolio - its loans to acquire land, develop land and property, and general construction.
"And then you couple that with poor local real estate market conditions (in some areas)."
The Cherry Creek development on Missouri 179, just north of Industrial Drive - announced as a combination of gated-community residential development coupled with commercial development closer to the highway - was just one of many examples of projects that failed with Premier having provided at least some of its financing.
"They also had developments in Arizona, Georgia, Missouri (and) Texas," Hernandez said.
"Since 2007, they had experienced losses in those acquisition, development and construction loans."
Burri noted Providence Bank "just bought certain assets of the former Premier Bank. ... I can't really comment on the former Premier Bank's loan portfolio or the transaction make-up."
He added: "Certainly a lot of people were concerned, and we did our best to alleviate those concerns - just stressing that we're a well-capitalized institution, and that we're maintaining a posture of business as usual and retaining employees at the branches, since we had no market overlap.
"We really tried to put those fears at ease."