Mid Penn Bancorp’s $82 million acquisition of Malvern’s First Priority Financial set to close in the third quarter has received the required regulatory approval, writes Jeff Blumenthal for Philadelphia Business Journal.

After the merger is complete, the main subsidiary of First Priority will operate as “First Priority Bank, a division of Mid Penn Bank.”

First Priority started operating in January 2006 and has grown to eight branches with $615 million in assets in Chester and the surrounding region.

Veteran banker, David Sparks, has led First Priority with an aggressive growth strategy including two acquisitions. The bank entered Bucks County through the acquisition of Prestige Community Bank. Four years later, it expanded into Berks County by acquiring Affinity Bancorp in 2012.

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It went public in 2015 and the following year acquired a $65 million commercial loan portfolio from Bancorp.

First Priority was one of 17 startup banks that began operating in southeastern Pennsylvania between 2004 and 2008 when the markets crashed. A decade on, only six were still standing with most being sold and some failing.

Read more about the regulatory approval at Philadelphia Business Journal here, and check out previous VISTA Today coverage of First Priority Financial here.

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