GreatAmerica Holdings Inc., the parent company of GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation, announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Heritage Bank and has filed an application to establish a national bank.
The acquisition of Heritage Bank, an Iowa state-chartered bank based in Marion with branches in Hiawatha and Delhi, is subject to regulatory approval. Upon closing, the bank will operate as GreatAmerica Bank National Association.
“Our team is excited to continue working with the Heritage Bank team in moving towards the establishment of GreatAmerica Bank,” GreatAmerica CEO Martin Golobic said in a statement. “The combined GreatAmerica and Heritage Bank will work in tandem at GreatAmerica Bank to continue growing and strengthening our existing customer relationships – while also building new ones – across all the industries we serve.”
According to the company, the addition of Heritage Bank will help expand GreatAmerica’s financial services, aligning its commercial equipment financing offerings with the resources of a federally-insured institution.
“Having Heritage Bank join the GreatAmerica team will allow us to provide a more comprehensive suite of financing options to small- and medium-sized businesses looking to acquire the equipment necessary to support their growth,” Mr. Golobic said. “For the past 33 years, our manufacturer, equipment distributor, and dealer customers have relied on GreatAmerica to provide the financing needed by their customers to purchase equipment. Establishing GreatAmerica Bank is just one of the exciting things we are working on to support our customers into the future.”
Founded in Cedar Rapids in 1992, GreatAmerica Financial Services is the largest independent, family-owned national commercial equipment finance company in the United States. The company reports total assets of $3.5 billion and employs more than 750 people across offices in Iowa, Illinois, Georgia and Minnesota.
