mBank-Peninsula Bank merger details

Within the next few months, Marquette County residents will be seeing a lot more mBank branches in the area.

The Mackinac Financial Corporation announced last week that it is buying the Peninsula Financial Corporation.  The two companies own mBank and Peninsula Bank, respectively.

mBank is buying Peninsula Bank’s $132 million in assets and all six Peninsula Bank branches.

“I think Peninsula was, at some point, looking to seek a partner, and we were looking to kind of grow, so it was probably a mutual (desire),” mBank president and CEO Kelly George said. “It wasn’t one organization or the other dictating it all or any type of hostile-type thing.”

This will make mBank the largest bank headquartered in the U.P.  The sale should close late in the late third quarter of this year or early in the fourth quarter.  Peninsula Bank branches will eventually be re-branded into mBank branches.

“We probably, over a period of six months to a year, had discussions (about a sale),” George said. “It’s not a fast-moving decision on either part, so it takes some time.”

mBank says it currently has no intention of closing any of the Peninsula Bank branches.  mBank officials say they want to be able to reach more clients, and they say Peninsula Bank’s current employees are vital to achieving that.