First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. is a Louisiana-chartered bank holding company
headquartered in Hammond, Louisiana. Our wholly owned subsidiary, First Guaranty
Bank (the “Bank”), a Louisiana-chartered commercial bank, provides
personalized commercial banking services mainly to Louisiana customers through
21 banking facilities primarily located in the Market Services Areas (MSAs),
of Hammond, Baton Rouge, Lafayette and Shreveport-Bossier City. Our principal
business consists of attracting deposits from the general public and local municipalities
in our market areas and investing those deposits, together with funds generated
from operations and borrowings in lending and in securities activities to serve
the credit needs of our customer base, including commercial real estate loans,
commercial and industrial loans, one- to four-family residential real estate
loans, construction and land development loans, agricultural and farmland loans,
and to a lesser extent, consumer and multifamily loans. We also participate
in certain syndicated loans, including shared national credits, with other financial
institutions. We offer a variety of deposit accounts to consumers and small
businesses, including personal and business checking and savings accounts, time
deposits, money market accounts and demand accounts. We invest a portion of
our assets in securities issued by the United States Government and its agencies,
state and municipal obligations, corporate debt securities, mutual funds, and
equity securities. We also invest in mortgage-backed securities primarily issued
or guaranteed by United States Government agencies or enterprises. In addition,
we offer a broad range of consumer services, including personal and commercial
credit cards, remote deposit capture, safe deposit boxes, official checks, internet
banking, automated teller machines, online bill pay, mobile banking and lockbox
services.
First Guaranty Bank was founded in Amite, Louisiana on March 12, 1934. While
the origins of First Guaranty Bank go back over 80 years, we began our modern
history in 1993 when an investor group, led by Marshall T. Reynolds, our Chairman,
invested $3.6 million in First Guaranty Bank as part of a recapitalization plan
with the objective of building a community-focused commercial bank in our Louisiana
markets.
Our mission is to increase shareholder value while providing services for and
contributing to the growth and welfare of the communities that we serve.
Our commercial lending team is organized around our regional market areas of
Louisiana. A senior experienced lender leads each market team and ensures that
our lenders deliver timely service to customers, meet and exceed expectations
of loan approval time, and broaden customer relationships through referrals.
We hired a seasoned chief lending officer in 2015 who will manage our loan portfolio
and foster strong commercial and consumer lending opportunities in both our
current and new market areas.
We are expanding upon our successful small business lending program with a
new emphasis on growing our SBA, USDA and commercial leasing lending programs.
We have invested in training key personnel to focus on this market as we believe
that SBA, USDA and commercial leasing loans can serve as new market opportunities
for our Bank. We will continue to be a leading agricultural lender and grow
our FSA lending.
We intend to grow our consumer loan portfolio principally through our residential
mortgage program. We hired an experienced team leader in 2013 to grow the consumer
residential mortgage business and we have invested in systems to accelerate
the decision making process to deliver quality customer service to our customers.
We intend to leverage our existing branch network to expand our retail lending.
We have expanded our technology to make it easier for both individual and business
customers to bank with us through mobile and internet banking.
We offer a broad range of loan and lease products with a variety of rates and
terms throughout our market areas, including business loans to primarily small
to medium-sized businesses and professionals, as well as loans to individuals.
Our lending operations consist of the following major segments: non-farm, non-residential
loans secured by real estate, commercial and industrial loans, one- to four-family
residential loans, construction and land development loans, agricultural loans,
farmland loans, consumer and other loans, and multifamily loans. All loan decisions
are locally made which can allow for a faster approval process than many of
our larger regional and nationwide bank competitors.
We actively seek to obtain public funds deposits. We have developed a program
for the retention and management of public funds deposits. These deposits are
from local government entities such as school districts, hospital districts,
sheriff departments and other municipalities. We solicit their operating, savings,
and time deposits and we are often the fiscal agent for the municipality. The
majority of these deposits are under contractual terms of up to three years.
Public funds deposit accounts are collateralized by FHLB letters of credit and
by eligible government and government agency securities such as those issued
by the FHLB, FFCB, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. We believe that public funds
provide a low cost and stable source of funding. The public funds deposit portfolio
has been a key driver of earnings for First Guaranty as we have profitability
deployed these funds into investment securities and loans.
Our investment policy is to provide a source of liquidity, to provide an appropriate
return on funds invested, to manage interest rate risk and to meet pledging
requirements for our public funds and other borrowings. Our investment securities
consist of: U.S. Treasury obligations; U.S. government agency obligations; mortgage-backed
securities; corporate and other debt securities; (5) mutual funds and other
equity securities and municipal bonds. Our U.S. government agency securities,
primarily consisting of government-sponsored enterprises, comprise the largest
share of our investment securities.
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