Wayne Savings announces merger
Wayne Savings President and CEO Jay VanSickle, left, and executive board chairman Mark Witmer stand in the lobby of their Dalton branch, which opened in January. Wayne Savings Bancshares Inc. and Main Street Financial Services Corp. will merge into Main Street Bank Corp., with a commitment to provide service to small towns like those in Wayne County.
The Wayne Savings name will change by 2024, but the longtime area bank is doubling down on its commitment to service and small towns in Ohio.
Local staple Wayne Savings Bancshares Inc. and Main Street Financial Services Corp., based in Wheeling, West Virginia, announced a merger of equal transaction on Feb. 23, creating a community bank with assets in excess of $1.3 billion.
The combined company will be branded under the name Main Street Bank Corp but will still be headquartered in Wooster.
“The Wayne Savings name is certainly a big part of our history and branding, but banks are getting away from a geographic location in the name,” said Jay VanSickle, Wayne Savings president and CEO, who will assume those responsibilities with Main Street Financial. “We are going to rebrand into Main Street Bank, but the Wayne Savings Community Bank charter that was founded in 1899 will remain the same.
“The Main Street Financial bank charter will go away, and we will absorb all of their folks into our operation charter. Their holding company will be the one that continues to exist. We have seven directors joining us. They have six directors joining us.”
Mark Witmer, Wayne’s current executive chairman, will serve as executive chairman of the combined company board of directors.
Nick Sparachane, Main Street’s current chairman, will serve as vice chairman of the combined company board of directors.
The combined company will have 18 branches, with a retail and lending presence covering Wooster to Wheeling with exposure to the major metropolitan areas of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Youngstown and Pittsburgh.
With banking companies such as PNC and Huntington closing branches regularly, VanSickle said Wayne Savings found a partner in Main Street Financial with a shared view to have a strong local presence in small towns.
“Recently, bigger banks closed their branches in Dalton and Fredericksburg, and (Wayne Savings) then opened up branches there,” VanSickle said. “Our combined Main Street and Wayne Savings will have opened five new branches in the last three years in towns where the big banks have closed up shop and left.
“We’re kind of leaning into that strategy. We still think that in our smaller markets that people want service, they want technology, and they want to be able to come in and talk to someone. The big banks don’t seem to be interested in having a presence outside of big cities.”
Even though national banks may have millions of dollars in deposits from a small town, in more and more instances they don’t have a representative there to sit down and talk with.
Wayne Savings has 13 locations and employs more than 100 people who contribute to the local economy and organizations. Main Street has five locations and 80 employees.
“A lot of people still really want that full-service bank,” VanSickle said. “The big banks were providing that type of service 20 years ago but have backed away.
“Whether you’re going to bank with Wayne Savings or someone else, just have it with a community bank because those deposits are going to work in your communities. If you really want to help your community, give us an opportunity to combine those deposits together and help somebody build their house or help somebody build their business. We’ve found a partner in Main Street Financial that shares that philosophy.”
Banking is an extremely competitive business, and the merger will help both companies be more efficient, VanSickle said.
“They’ve been growing about twice as fast as normal banks, and we’re growing about three times as much,” said VanSickle, who’s proud of Wayne Savings recently being named one of the best 50 producing companies on the OTCQX market. “We have the same strategies.”
So how will the merger affect current Wayne Savings customers who might have a checking and savings account?
“Your routing and account numbers will stay the same,” VanSickle said. “You won’t have to change your EFT settings.
“Besides seeing the new Main Street Bank name, it will allow us to be more efficient because we don’t have any branch overlap. The scale is important, whether it’s sharing the same core processing or other administrative things. Seeing that our strategies are so similar, our legal lending limit is going to almost double in size. We’re also going to be taking a look at what they do and what we do and just take the best of both worlds.”