- Business
- First Guaranty Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FGBI) serves as the holding company for First Guaranty Bank, a full-service commercial bank that provides personalized banking services to businesses, professionals, municipalities, and individuals; its core offerings include a variety of deposit products such as personal and business checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, demand accounts, and time deposits; commercial real estate loans, commercial and industrial loans, construction and land development loans, agricultural and farmland loans, one- to four-family residential loans, multifamily loans, consumer loans, and commercial leases; consumer services encompassing credit cards, mobile deposit capture, safe deposit boxes, official checks, online and mobile banking, automated teller machines, online bill pay, merchant services, remote deposit capture, and lockbox services; as well as investment securities including U.S. government and agency obligations, state and municipal securities, corporate debt, mutual funds, equity securities, and mortgage-backed securities primarily issued or guaranteed by U.S. government agencies. Headquartered in Hammond, Louisiana, where First Guaranty Bank traces its origins to 1934 as Guaranty Bank & Trust Company (renamed in 1971), the company operates approximately 31 to 36 branches across Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, West Virginia, and possibly Mississippi and Florida, with 42 ATMs, supporting total assets of around $4 billion, deposits of $3.5 billion, and loans of $2.4 billion as of mid-2025. In recent developments, First Guaranty Bancshares completed a sale-leaseback transaction in June 2024 for two branches and part of its headquarters, generating a pre-tax gain of $13.2 million and estimated first-year rent expense savings; implemented a business transformation in 2024 by moderating asset growth, enhancing capital, streamlining workforce through 71 position cuts (about 15% of staff, reducing full-time equivalents to around 339-360), and adopting automation for annual pre-tax savings of approximately $12-13.4 million; amended loan terms in June 2025 with director-affiliated Smith & Tate Investment, L.L.C., allowing principal payment waivers and interest payments in cash or stock through March 2026; added Robert W. Walker to its board of directors following the 2025 annual shareholder meeting; reported a Q3 2025 net loss of $45 million primarily due to a $47.9 million provision for credit losses tied to a single auto-parts-related commercial lease exposure and a $12.9 million goodwill impairment, alongside net interest margin pressure at 2.34%; and maintained its commitment to shareholders through its 128th consecutive quarterly common stock dividend of $0.01 per share and Series A Preferred Stock dividends.