SmartFinancial to transfer Virginia branch to First Bank

SmartFinancial in Knoxville, Tenn., has sold a loan portfolio and other assets to First Bank in Strasburg, Va.

The $3.7 billion-asset SmartFinancial said in a press release Thursday that it will also transfer the lease to a branch in Richmond, Va., to First Bank in the fourth quarter. First Bank acquired $83 million of loans.

SmartFinancial said it would receive a premium based on a specific percentage of the loans sold. Fixed assets will be sold at book value. The branch’s employees will join First Bank. 

The company had gained the branch from its recent acquisition of Sevier County Bank.

“While we recognize the opportunity in the Richmond market area, we felt it necessary to focus on our Southeastern footprint and particularly the new markets we’ve added with our recent lift-outs”, Billy Carroll, SmartFinancial’s president and CEO, said in the release. 

“We have tremendous momentum with our recently announced team hires in [the Alabama communities of] Auburn, Dothan, Montgomery and Birmingham … and want to concentrate our expansion efforts there,” Carroll added.

SmartFinancial said in a separate press release that it had hired David Smith, a former banker at BBVA, to create a new floor plan lending business line. Smith will be based in Birmingham.