First Security Group, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Chattanooga,
Tennessee. We currently operate 26 full-service banking offices through our
wholly-owned bank subsidiary, FSGBank, N.A. We serve the banking and financial
needs of various communities in eastern and middle Tennessee, as well as northern
Georgia.
Through FSGBank, we strive to be a top-tier community bank through a focus on
business banking while leveraging our retail branch network and capitalizing
on niche lending opportunities. This strategy focuses on serving the needs of
small- to medium-sized businesses by offering a range of lending, deposit and
wealth management services to these businesses and their owners. Additionally,
FSGBank’s lending services include a private banking line of business
as well as loans secured by single and multi-family real estate, residential
construction and owner-occupied commercial real estate. Our principal source
of funds for loans and investment securities is core deposits gathered through
our branch network.
We offer a wide range of deposit services, including checking, savings, money
market accounts and certificates of deposit, and obtain most of our deposits
from individuals and businesses in our market areas, including those of our
loan customers. Our wealth management division offers financial planning, trust
administration, investment management and estate planning services. We also
provide mortgage banking and electronic banking services, such as Internet banking
(www.fsgbank.com), online bill payment, cash management, ACH originations, and
remote deposit capture. We actively pursue business relationships by utilizing
the business contacts of our Board of Directors, senior management and local
bankers, thereby capitalizing on our extensive knowledge of the local marketplace.
FSGBank is the successor to our three previous banks: Dalton Whitfield Bank
(organized in 1999), Frontier Bank (acquired in 2000) and First State Bank (acquired
in 2002). Dalton Whitfield Bank was a state bank organized under the laws of
Georgia engaged in a general commercial banking business. Dalton Whitfield Bank
opened for business in September 1999, and simultaneously acquired selected
assets and substantially all of the deposits of Colonial Bank’s three
branches located in Dalton, Georgia.
Frontier Bank was a state savings bank organized under the laws of Tennessee
in 2000 as First Central Bank of Monroe County. We acquired First Central Bank
of Monroe County in 2000 for an aggregate purchase price of $2.3 million in
cash. After the acquisition, First Central Bank of Monroe County was renamed
Frontier Bank and re-chartered as a state bank under the laws of Tennessee to
engage in a general commercial banking business. Outside of the Chattanooga
market, Frontier Bank operated under the name of “First Security Bank.”
Our principal source of funds for loans and investing in securities is core
deposits. We offer a wide range of deposit services, including checking, savings,
money market accounts and certificates of deposit. We obtain most of our deposits
from individuals, businesses and municipalities in our market areas. We believe
that the rates we offer for core deposits are competitive with those offered
by other financial institutions in our market areas. We have also chosen to
obtain a portion of our deposits from outside our market through brokered deposits.
Our brokered deposits represented 11.6% of total deposits as of December 31,
2014. Other sources of funding include advances from the FHLB, subordinated
debt and other borrowings. These other sources enable us to borrow funds at
rates and terms, which at times, are more beneficial to us.
Given client demand for increased convenience and account access, we offer
a range of products and services, including internet banking, ACH transactions,
remote deposit capture, mobile banking, including remote deposit, wire transfers,
direct deposit, traveler’s checks, safe deposit boxes, and United States
savings bonds. We earn fees for most of these services. We also receive ATM
transaction fees from transactions performed by our customers participating
in a shared network of ATMs and a debit card system that our customers can use
nationally. Additionally, we offer wealth management services including private
client services, financial planning, trust administration, investment management,
brokerage and estate planning services.
The composition of our securities portfolio reflects our investment strategy
of maintaining an appropriate level of liquidity while providing a relatively
stable source of income. Our securities portfolio also provides a balance to
interest rate risk and credit risk in other categories of the balance sheet
while providing a vehicle for investing available funds, furnishing liquidity
and supplying securities to pledge as required collateral for certain deposits
and borrowed funds. Currently, our investments are classified as either available-for-sale
or held-to-maturity. The effective duration for the available-for-sale securities
is approximately 18 months and 59 months for the held-to-maturity securities.
The securities classified as available-for-sale may be sold and used for liquidity
purposes should we deem it to be in our best interest. The decision to sell
an available-for-sale security includes many factors, including, but not limited
to, current market pricing, liquidity needs, future price risk of the security,
our overall asset base and the associated the impact on regulatory capital ratios,
as well as the evaluation of the various other liquidity sources.