Cedar Rapids banks to combine

Two Cedar Rapids-based banks will combine later this year.

QCR Holdings, the parent company of Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust, announced Thursday it will acquire all of Cedar Rapids-based Guaranty Bank & Trust Co in a $44.2 million deal. Once complete, Guaranty Bank and its five branches will merge into CRBT.

The acquisition is expected to close late this year and is subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

CRBT President and CEO Larry Helling said the acquisition will give CRBT more scale and broader reach in the Cedar Rapids area. CRBT only has two branches in Cedar Rapids currently.

Scale 'is important in our business if we're going to be able to continue to afford the technologies and cybersecurity and all of those things that are important in the long run,” Helling told The Gazette.

In a statement announcing the deal, Helling said the acquisition would 'create the largest community bank in Linn County.” CRBT had about $931 million in assets while Guaranty Bank had about $267 million in assets at the end of March.

The deal also will combine CRBT's 125 employees with Guaranty's 63. Helling said it's too early to know if there will be staff reductions.

Guaranty Bank customers do not need to do anything immediately with their accounts, the banks said. They can continue to use their bank cards, checks, online banking services and the bank's mobile app until the acquisition and a data conversion is complete later this year or in early 2018,

Once the conversion is complete, Guaranty Bank customers will be switched to Cedar Rapids Bank & Trust products, including CRBT's website. Customers will be notified ahead of time and receive information by mail, Helling said.

For security purposes, the banks will not call or email customers and ask for personal information.

The acquisition marks the second time in about a year QCR Holdings, based in Moline, Ill., has purchased an Iowa bank. The company announced in 2016 that it would acquire Ankeny-based Community State Bank for $80 million.

In addition to CRBT and Community State Bank, QCR Holdings also owns Bettendorf-based Quad City Bank & Trust and Rockford, Ill.-based Rockford Bank & Trust. Community Bank & Trust, which has branches in Waterloo and Cedar Falls is a subsidiary of CRBT.

Consolidation is not new for Iowa's banking industry, which is made up heavily of community banks.

There were 398 Iowa banks as of March 2007, according to FDIC data. By March 2017, that number was down to 301.

Iowa also has not seen a new bank charter established since 2006.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; matthew.patane@thegazette.com