University Bank and Girard National Bank announce merger

University Bank and the Girard National Bank are very pleased to announce a merger agreement. The respective Boards of Directors of GN Bankshares, Inc. and University National Bancshares, Inc. have arrived at an agreement to merge University Bank with and into the Girard National Bank. University Bank locations in Pittsburg, Arma, and Galena will continue to operate under the name University Bank, branch GNB. The merger, which is expected to close in the 4th quarter of 2015, is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.
University Bank has approximately $125 million in assets and is locally owned by approximately 55 shareholders in and surrounding the Pittsburg market. Girard National Bank has approximately $600 million in assets and is primarily owned and operated by the Schifferdecker family. Girard National Bank has twelve locations throughout Kansas and eastern Colorado.
Mark Schifferdecker, Girard National Bank President & CEO, stated, “We are very excited to add University Bank to the GNB family of banks. University Bank and Girard National Bank share the same philosophy of putting our customers and communities first, by providing the highest quality of customer service. We think our banks fit very well together, and we are pleased that our mutual customers will be able to access our banking services from any of our locations in Pittsburg, Girard, Arma, Galena, as well as our other market areas. University Bank has a tremendous staff, and we plan to make no changes to staffing or services. By combining our resources, we believe we will be able to offer unparalleled banking services to Southeast Kansas.”
University Bank Chairman Roger Heckert expressed his enthusiasm for the merger as: “this agreement is good for our Community, our customers, our shareholders and our employees”. Heckert further elaborated that “combining the resources of these two solid community banks will ensure a continued commitment to local banking and reinvestment in the community we have served these many years.”
University Bank President Tad Dunham remarked that “our University Bank Banking family will remain intact as some employees will gain additional duties or promotion opportunities and no employees will be terminated as the result of this merger. Instead, our employees, our customers and the markets we serve will benefit from the significantly larger lending limits, financial strength, organizational size and footprint that the combined organization will offer to their customers and employees. I look forward to assisting our existing customers with the same good service they have enjoyed at University Bank for years with the addition of significant increased capacity for products, loan size and value this opportunity will provide.”