Found this article and thought I would post the part about the transition to THFF ownership. Souncs like it's going OK.


The venerable 152-year-old First National Bank of Danville, which had held the second oldest bank charter in the state, became undercapitalized, falling below industry standards in each of the three key categories and reporting a second quarter net income of negative $12 million.

Smooth transition

Two days after the FDIC shuttered the bank, Terre Haute-based First Financial Bank stepped in and reopened the main Towne Centre location. First Financial Bank paid to take over the assets and deposits of the First National Bank of Danville.

Now, two months later, it is still business as usual, with familiar employees continuing to assist longtime customers of that banking location.

Michael Carty, chief financial officer of First Financial, said the transition into the Danville area, a market First Financial had been eyeing for nearly 20 years, has been smooth.

“Fortunately, the number of customer questions was few,” he said of the bank takeover. “I don’t know of any customers that closed accounts because of it.

“One of the first things we did was meet with most of the (former First National Bank) employees and get benefit packages in place, because you want the continuity there,” Carty said of retaining the staff.

“We were satisfied with the quality of the personnel. They have a strong commitment to customer service,” he added.

While much has stayed the same at the bank during the past couple of months, a change is on the horizon for customers of First Financial’s Danville branch. The records from the First National Bank of Danville are being merged with First Financial’s, and completion of the merger will allow customers of the Danville branch to bank at any other First Financial location as well as make a whole new line of banking products available to them.

“Right now, we have no access to their records if they visit another First Financial branch,” Carty said. “The data systems have not been merged together yet.

“We’re still in the process of conversion, because it takes 90 to 100 days to get customers converted into our system. You can’t change the bookkeeping overnight,” he said. “It’s not until that’s complete that customers can see our suite of products.

“The customers have taken it in stride, though,” Carty said. “We just have to get the conversion over with.”

Entering the Danville market had long been a goal of First Financial’s, Carty said. Besides Terre Haute, the bank has branches in Ridge Farm and Marshall.

“Danville was a market we wanted to be in,” he said. “We were talking to people to buy into that market 20 years ago.

“I guess it just happened more suddenly than we had anticipated,” he said, referring to the acquisition of the First National Bank of Danville’s assets. “Our long-term strategic plan is to grow our market.”

Link to entire article:
http://www.commercial-news.com/local/loc...