ABA Adds Five to Community Bank Benchmark

The American Bankers Association (ABA) has added five community banks to its benchmark index for the sector.

California Bancorp, ChoiceOne Financial Services, Cincinnati Bancorp, Investar Holding Corporation and Professional Holding Corp were added to the ABA Nasdaq Community Bank Index on June 1.

ChoiceOne, based in Sparta, Michigan, last month completed the consolidation of Lakeside Bank & Trust into ChoiceOne Bank, following the acquisition of Lakeside’s parent company County Bank Corp in March 2019.

ChoiceOne is also set to acquire Community Shores Bank, also based in Michigan, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. The deal is expected to complete on July 1, with Community Shores Bank consolidated into ChoiceOne Bank by the end of this year.

Following the acquisition, ChoiceOne will have more than $1.5 billion in assets across 33 locations in Michigan.

Investar, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, operates 30 branches across its home state as well as southeast Texas and southwest Alabama. In February it acquired two Texas branches of PlainsCapital Bank, adding $37 million of deposits and a $46 million loan book to its $2.1 billion of total assets.

Professional Holding Corp is based in Coral Gables, Florida, and is the parent company of Professional Bank. It raised $59.7 million in an IPO on Nasdaq’s Global Select Market in February this year.

In March, the company completed a merger with Marquis Bancorp. The combined entity has $1.7 billion in assets.

California Bancorp, headquartered in Lafayette, is the holding company for the California Bank of Commerce. It listed on Nasdaq’s Global Select Market in March this year.

The bank had more than $1.1 billion in assets at the end of December 2019, according to its annual results statement, with total deposits of $988 million and a loan book worth almost $950 million.

Ohio-based Cincinnati Bancorp is the holding company for Cincinnati Federal Bank, which also owns Kentucky Federal. It had $228 million in total assets at the end of March 2020, according to a recent regulatory filing.

Launched in 2003, the ABA Nasdaq Community Bank Index now includes 312 community banks from across the US with a combined $191 billion in market capitalization.

The benchmark includes all banks or holdings companies listed on the Nasdaq, but excludes the top 50 largest by assets. It also does not include predominantly international banks or credit card specialists.

The index’s value has fallen 33% so far this year, predominantly as a result of the pandemic-induced equity market selloff.