Citizens Alliance Bank to buy Granite Mountain Bank in Butte

MONTANA STANDARD STAFF

Citizens Alliance Bank, headquartered in Clara City, Minnesota, has agreed to acquire Butte-based Granite Mountain Bank in a transaction that includes branches in Philipsburg and Drummond, while pledging the same “community banking” commitment Granite Mountain Bank customers expect.

“The employees, branch locations and commitment to the GMB customers will not change,” said Chad A. Forkrud, CAB president. “Customers will be dealing with the same individuals that they deal with today.”

Jerry Sullivan, chairman of Granite Mountain Bank, said that “although the decision to sell the bank was a difficult one, I know that CAB is focused on community banking, committed to local decision-making, and has experience operating in Montana.”

Sullivan added that CAB has “a 120-year history of understanding the needs of customers throughout generations in and around all the communities they serve.”

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GMB President Neil Bolton is expected to lead the current GMB offices once the merger is completed.

The Butte bank opened its doors on Jan. 25, 1999, and was named as such after the Granite Mountain Mine, where an estimated 166 miners were killed as a result of a fire that took place at the Granite Mountain and Speculator mines on June 8, 1917.

During its 24-year history, GMB had earned national recognition numerous times as “one of the top performing community banks in the nation.”

Citizens Alliance Bank, an independent community bank with total assets in excess of $1.2 billion, currently has three Montana offices in Great Falls, Seeley Lake and Lincoln. It also has 10 offices in rural communities in west-central Minnesota.

According to a press release, the transaction is contingent upon regulatory approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), as well as regulators in Minnesota and Montana and the shareholders of Flint Creek Holding Co., which holds Granite Mountain Bank as a subsidiary. GMB, which was established in 1940, has about $135 million in total assets.

The release also said that following the merger, GMB customers will see new banking products gradually introduced, such as bank-sourced Visa credit cards, direct access to the secondary real estate lending market, an expanded bank-lending limit, and enhanced digital banking technologies. 

“GMB customers will continue to experience the benefits of working with a local community bank with local decision-making authority,” said Great Falls native Ryan Fritz, senior Montana market manager for CAB.

CAB is a wholly owned subsidiary of brother-owned Forstrom Bancorporation Inc., which will exceed $1.30 billion in consolidated assets upon integration of Granite Mountain Bank. Forstrom Bancorporation Inc. started in Montana with its Seeley Lake office in 1998.

CAB and GMB representatives anticipate regulatory approval in this year’s first quarter and then closing the transaction later in the year.

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