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Peoples First Turnover
12/19/09 - 06:16 PM
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Branches of what was Peoples First Community Bank just yesterday are already beginning to show a change of hands. 

Representatives from the FDIC and Hancock Bank are working around the clock this weekend to make sure that customers can keep conducting business as usual.

FDIC representatives are painstakingly crunching numbers at Peoples First corporate headquarters to make sure all accounts balance out and all deposits are accounted for. The goal of both Hancock and the FDIC is to make sure customers stay calm amid the change.

Canvas signs reveal a dramatic change sweeping across Bay County. Hancock CEO Carl Chaney says it’s a formal renaming of what used to be Peoples First Community Bank:  “We’ve got crews that are working this weekend. They’ll be putting canvas signs, temporary signs of Hancock Bank, because we want to immediately start the rebranding process.”

This is a process that, to customers could seem abrupt.  Word came from the FDIC that Peoples First would surrender its liabilities to Hancock just after 5:00 Friday afternoon. In less than 24 hours the bank has changed hands and ownership. Chaney says even the employees are now under the care of Hancock:  “There’s no interruption in payroll for them, no interruption in health insurance coverage.”

Gordon Talbot with the FDIC says “They’re going to keep all these branches open and they’ve hired all the former employees. Everyone can continue to do business as usual with the bank.”

According to the FDIC customers should not be afraid to come make normal withdrawals or deposits at People’s First. All of the changes are unnoticeable from the outside to a customer. They’re all going on internally.

Maryam Zeinomar, a customer admits “…I don’t know what kind of changes are going to happen, but like she said it’s all the sentimental value about it; coming to Peoples First, but we’ll see what happens in the future.”

For more information or to voice your concerns, you can visit the FDIC’s website:
http://www.fdic.gov/.