First National Beatrice to merge with Lincoln bank

First National Beatrice Bank and Trust Co. customers should expect letters this week notifying them of the Sept. 5  merger of the locally owned bank and Security First Bank of Lincoln.

First National Beatrice Bank and Trust Co., and its parent company Homestead Financial Corp., and Security First Bank, a subsidiary of Stockman’s Financial Corp., say they are close to completing a merger, said Marnie Herrmann, Security First Bank director of marketing and communications.

“Everything is moving forward,” she said Thursday. “We’re planning that the merger will be complete Sept. 5.”

Customers can expect little change at the Beatrice bank, said First National Beatrice President and CEO John Rypma. The name will change and customers will get debit/ATM cards, but account numbers will remain the same.

“It should have little effect on the community,” Rypma said. “We’re going to try to make this as uneventful as possible in the community.”

Discussions began in November, when the two groups signed a non-binding letter of intent, Herrmann said.

“We thought we were going to be able to close last spring,” she said. “We couldn’t.

“It was just a more complicated sale than anybody anticipated, mostly because of an employee stock ownership program.”

First National Beatrice, a 130-year-old Beatrice business, is owned by employees and the Howie family, now of California, Rypma said. The bank has branch offices in Beatrice, Blue Springs, Clatonia, Cortland and Lincoln.

Security First is owned by the Hunter family of Rushville and has 22 branches in Lincoln, Martell and several other communities in Nebraska and South Dakota, Herrmann said.

“They’re going to be a very good fit for us,” Rypma said. “We both offer very good products.”