The Dearborn, Mich.-based credit union founded for engineering employees at Ford is planning to acquire the only locally-owned community bank in Sarasota, Fla.
DFCU Financial, with about $8 billion in assets, will gain another $345 million in assets and a foothold in the Sarasota market when it finalizes its purchase of Gulfside Bank early next year.
The two-location Florida bank opened in 2018. DFCU has been expanding in Florida since 2023 through its purchase of Florida banks and the Florida locations of MidWestOne Bank, formerly of Iowa City, Iowa.
The Gulfside deal was facilitated by Inverness, Ill.-based Hovde Group, who said in a backgrounder on the deal that Gulfside Bank’s President and CEO Dennis Murphy would remain in role and act as DFCU’s Sarasota/Manatee-area president.
Credit unions purchasing banks reached a peak in 2024. That tempo has subsided somewhat, with a handful of mainly intrastate deals this year, for instance in Alabama, Michigan and Wisconsin. Aside from today’s announcement there has been one other interstate acquisition, with Indiana-based Interra CU announcing it would buy Ohio-based Hicksville Bank in April; that purchase closed earlier this month.
