March 21. First Bancorp, the parent company of First Bank, has officially taken over Select Bank, which had an office on West Catawba at Nantz Road.

Southern Pines based First Bank gained 11 locations with the acquisition of Select, including Sylva, Highlands, Franklin, the Ballantyne area of Charlotte, Elizabeth City, Cornelius, Dunn, Clinton, and Goldsboro; and two in South Carolina: Rock Hill and Blacksburg. The Fayetteville branch of First Bank will be relocating to the former Select Bank & Trust location on Raeford Road.

Total assets over $10 billion

The addition of Select Bank & Trust increased First Bank’s total assets to $10.6 billion with $6.0 billion in loans and deposits of $9.3 billion.

Local market share

Select Bank, based in Dunn, NC, had $8.8 million in Cornelius deposits as of June 30 last year, and .59 percent of local market share, according to the FDIC. Select ranked 14th out of 14 ranked by the FDIC according to deposits.

No. 1 ranked Aquesta had $293 million in deposits on June 30, and 19.62 percent of market share. Aquesta was acquired by United Community Bank last year.

Going forward

Mike Mayer, First Bank president and CEO, said: “This is the culmination of many months of work, and at every step we ensured our new customers remained first and foremost. With any conversion there are challenges, but we truly believe our people are equipped and ready to handle anything that happens and have worked very hard to make sure it’s smooth. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome the Select Bank customers and associates to the First Bank team.”