CINCINNATI, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Fifth Third Bancorp today announced that Fifth Third Bank (South Florida) will assume approximately $250 million of deposits, including all uninsured deposits, from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation acting as receiver for Bradenton-based Freedom Bank.
At the close of business on October 31, banking regulators declared Freedom Bank insolvent and the FDIC was named receiver. The FDIC approved the assumption of all deposits by Fifth Third Bank. The FDIC will retain substantially all of Freedom Bank's loan portfolio for later disposition.
"We are pleased to provide a new home for Freedom Bank's deposit customers and to provide them the strength and convenience of Fifth Third," said Kevin T. Kabat, chairman, president, and CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp. "We are very pleased that no deposit customer at Freedom Bank will lose any of their deposit savings as a result of this transaction. Fifth Third remains committed to doing the right thing to support its core communities during this difficult time."
The transaction will give Fifth Third approximately $675 million in deposits in the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), and raise Fifth Third's deposit market share in that market from 8th to 4th, according to recent FDIC data.
Fifth Third will provide banking services to Freedom Bank's former customers, and will operate Freedom Bank's four branches beginning Monday, November 3, under the Fifth Third Bank name. Customers of both banks should continue to use their existing branches until Fifth Third can fully integrate the deposit records of Freedom Bank. After this transition period, Freedom Bank's customers will gain access to Fifth Third's 16 existing locations in the Bradenton-Sarasota market, as well as to Fifth Third's nearly 1,300 branches and over 2,300 ATMs in 12 states, including 156 branches and 183 ATMs in Florida.
Fifth Third will work with Freedom Bank's employees to identify potential job opportunities with Fifth Third Bank.
"We look forward to welcoming Freedom Bank customers to Fifth Third," said David Call, president and CEO of Fifth Third Bank (South Florida). "We're pleased to work with the FDIC to provide this security to Freedom Bank's depositors, and to welcome all Freedom Bank customers to enjoy the benefits of banking with Fifth Third Bank."
Corporate Profile
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Company has $116 billion in assets, operates 18 affiliates with 1,299 full-service Banking Centers, including 93 Bank Mart(R) locations open seven days a week inside select grocery stores and 2,334 ATMs in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. Fifth Third operates five main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending, Investment Advisors and Fifth Third Processing Solutions. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of September 30, 2008, has $196 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $30 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at http://www.53.com/ . Fifth Third's common stock is traded on the NASDAQ(R) National Global Select Market under the symbol "FITB."
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This report may contain forward-looking statements about Fifth Third Bancorp within the meaning of Sections 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Rule 175 promulgated thereunder, and 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Rule 3b-6 promulgated thereunder, that involve inherent risks and uncertainties. This report may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business of Fifth Third Bancorp including statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words or phrases such as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "trend," "objective," "continue," "remain" or similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "would," "should," "could," "might," "can," "may" or similar expressions. There are a number of important factors that could cause future results to differ materially from historical performance and these forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: (1) general economic conditions and weakening in the economy, specifically the real estate market, either national or in the states in which Fifth Third, does business, are less favorable than expected; (2) deteriorating credit quality; (3) political developments, wars or other hostilities may disrupt or increase volatility in securities markets or other economic conditions; (4) changes in the interest rate environment reduce interest margins; (5) prepayment speeds, loan origination and sale volumes, charge-offs and loan loss provisions; (6) Fifth Third's ability to maintain required capital levels and adequate sources of funding and liquidity; (7) changes and trends in capital markets; (8) competitive pressures among depository institutions increase significantly; (9) effects of critical accounting policies and judgments; (10) changes in accounting policies or procedures as may be required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or other regulatory agencies; (11) legislative or regulatory changes or actions, or significant litigation, adversely affect Fifth Third, or the businesses in which Fifth Third, one is engaged; (12) ability to maintain favorable ratings from rating agencies; (13) fluctuation of Fifth Third's stock price; (14) ability to attract and retain key personnel; (15) ability to receive dividends from its subsidiaries; (16) potentially dilutive effect of future acquisitions on current shareholders' ownership of Fifth Third; (17) effects of accounting or financial results of one or more acquired entities; (18) difficulties in combining the operations of acquired entities; (19) inability to generate the gains on sale and related increase in shareholders' equity that it anticipates from the sale of certain non-core businesses, (20) loss of income from the sale of certain non-core businesses could have an adverse effect on Fifth Third's earnings and future growth (21) ability to secure confidential information through the use of computer systems and telecommunications networks; (22) the impact of reputational risk created by these developments on such matters as business generation and retention, funding and liquidity; and (23) the Treasury providing satisfactory definitive documentation for its purchase of senior preferred shares and agreement on final terms and conditions. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements is available in the Bancorp's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Copies of this filing are available at no cost on the SEC's Web site at http://www.sec.gov/ or on the Fifth Third's Web site at http://www.53.com/. Fifth Third undertakes no obligation to release revisions to these forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this report.
