Meta Financial, Crestmark Bancorp Announce Merger

Following special meetings on May 29, shareholders of Meta Financial Group, Inc. and Crestmark Bancorp, Inc. approved a plan of merger between the two companies. The companies had previously entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger as of January 9 to approve the merger and other transactions contemplated by the merger agreement, the companies said in an announcement.

At the Meta meeting, shareholders also approved an additional proposal to increase the number of authorized shares by 60 million to 90 million. The idea behind the proposal was to facilitate a proposed three-for-one forward stock split of Meta shares through a stock dividend.

Even with the shareholder approvals, Meta and Crestmark said that the merger’s completion is still subject to customary closing conditions such as pending regulatory approvals. The companies are anticipating that the deal with close at the beginning of July.

Meta Financial Group, Inc. is the holding company for MetaBank, which is a federally chartered savings bank that trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol CASH. The bank, which is based in South Dakota, operates in both the banking and payments industries through multiple operations. Meta is involved with community banking through MetaBank, and the company also works with electronic payments through its Meta Payment Systems division. In addition, the company has a commercial insurance premium financing division called FS/IBEX. Meta also has tax-related financial solutions divisions called Refund Advantage, EPS Financial and Specialty Consumer Services.

And Crestmark Bancorp Inc. is the holding company for Crestmark Bank, which is a a Michigan state-chartered Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured commercial bank with regional offices in six states that has sales representation nationwide. The Michigan-based bank provides a variety of services including working capital loan solutions, line of credit solutions, equipment leasing, equipment financing and financial services to businesses in multiple industries.