Enterprise Bank & Trust Purchase Of First Choice Bank Approved By Regulators

Enterprise Financial Services Corp., the parent of Enterprise Bank & Trust, announced its acquisition of First Choice Bank has received all of its necessary regulatory approvals and now is in the hands of shareholders of both banks.

Those approvals included a waiver from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and approval from the Missouri Division of Finance, according to Enterprise Financial Services Corp.

Enterprise Financial stated in the announcement of regulatory approvals that pending approval from shareholders, the deal will close in the third calendar quarter of 2021.

The $398 million deal was announced in April.

Enterprise President and Chief Executive Jim Lally said in a prepared statement at the time: “The acquisition of First Choice strengthens our commercial banking foundation in the largest economy in the country. I have tremendous respect for the associates of First Choice and the company they have built since its founding in 2005. They have successfully created a commercially-focused community bank with a demonstrated ability to generate organic growth.”

Clayton, Mo.-based Enterprise Financial Services Corp. reports having assets of about $10.2 billion and stated in the recent announcement that the company has branches in Arizona, California, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada and New Mexico. Also, the company states it has U.S. Small Business Administration-related offices in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

First Choice Bancorp is based in Cerritos, Calif., and is the holding company of First Choice Bank. The recent announcement states that First Choice “serves primarily commercial and consumer clients in diverse communities and specializes in loans to small- to medium-sized businesses and private banking clients, commercial and industrial loans, and commercial real estate loans.”

First Choice states in the announcement that it has offices in California’s Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.