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Hancock Bank Assumes All Deposits of Peoples First Community Bank
12/18/09 - 04:27 PM
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Peoples First Community Bank will re-open Saturday under a new company.

The 29 branches around Florida will become branches of Hancock Bank, based out of Gulfport, Mississippi.

According to the FDIC, all People’s First business will continue as usual.

Peoples First Community Bank was closed Friday by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver.

To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Hancock Bank to assume all of the deposits of Peoples First Community Bank.

All deposit accounts, excluding certain brokered deposits, have been transferred to Hancock Bank.

Those deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC and the agency says there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage.

FDIC also assures members that you can still access funds by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards.

Loan customers should also continue to make their payments as usual.

Bay County and Panama City government officials say losing local ownership of Peoples First is losing a piece of the community.

According to the FDIC, as of September 30, 2009, Peoples First Community Bank had approximately $1.8 billion in total assets and $1.7 billion in total deposits. The agency says Hancock Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of one percent to assume all of the deposits of Peoples First Community Bank.

The FDIC says Hancock Bank also agreed to purchase approximately $1.6 billion of the failed bank’s assets.

The FDIC retained the remaining assets for later disposition.

The FDIC and Hancock Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on approximately $1.4 billion of Peoples First Community Bank’s assets. Hancock Bank will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the loss-share agreement. The loss-share transaction is projected to maximize returns on the assets covered by keeping them in the private sector. The transaction also is expected to minimize disruptions for loan customers.

Click here for more information on the loss share transaction.

Customers who have questions about today’s transaction can call the FDIC toll-free at 1-.

The phone number will be operational Friday until 9:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time), on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., on Sunday from noon to 6:00 p.m., and thereafter from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Due to the Christmas Holiday, the toll-free number will not be operational between the hours of 3 p.m., Thursday, December 24, and 8:00 a.m., Monday, December 28.

For more information you can visit the FDIC’s Web site at by clicking here.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $556.7 million. Hancock Bank’s acquisition of all the deposits was the “least costly” resolution for the FDIC’s DIF compared to all alternatives.

Peoples First Community Bank is the 135th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the fourteenth in Florida.