Glacier Bancorp plans to consolidate its 11 banking subsidiaries across the West into a single commercial bank based in Kalispell, the company announced on Wednesday.
Subsidiaries in western Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Wyoming will become separate divisions of Glacier Bank. Following the consolidation, Glacier Bank will have $7.2 billion in assets and 102 branches.
The merger will be strictly internal and will help the company reduce regulatory burdens and free up resources for more productive projects and strategies, Glacier Bancorp President and CEO Mick Blodnick said.
“The customers should not really notice one difference at all,” Blodnick said. “This is just an opportunity for us to reduce a lot of our regulatory burden, which is getting greater and greater all the time.”
“For us, the best thing we could have done was the consolidation we announced yesterday,” he added.
Glacier Bancorp will file an application with the appropriate federal and state bank regulators to merge the bank subsidiaries. The board of directors and senior management team of Glacier Bancorp will remain in identical roles for the consolidated company. Divisions will remain under the same names, management teams and directors.
Bank officials expect the consolidation to be completed in the early second quarter of 2012, following regulatory approvals.
Glacier Bancorp, founded in Kalispell in 1955, currently employs over 200 people in Northwest Montana and more than 1,700 overall. The company will announce fourth quarter financial results on Jan. 26.
Glacier Bancorp is the parent company for six community banks in Montana including Glacier Bank of Kalispell; First Security Bank of Missoula; Valley Bank of Helena; Big Sky Western Bank of Bozeman; Western Security Bank of Billings; and First Bank of Montana, Lewistown.