FDIC Takes Over Citizens First Bank; Plainfield Branch Now Heartland Bank

Federal regulators have taken over a bank with branches in Plainfield, Minooka and Aurora, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

The FDIC closed Citizens First National Bank, making the Princeton, Illinois-based bank the third institutions with Chicago-area connections to be taken over by the feds.

Heartland Bank & Trust announced that it had acquired the assets and assumed the deposits of Citizens First National, including the Plainfield location and 20 other offices. The branches reopened as Heartland Bank on Saturday.

“This is an opportunity for us to expand into this market, and carry on the community banking tradition in those communities. We think they will be good markets for Heartland Bank in the long run,” Fred Drake, chairman and CEO of Heartland Bank, said in a press release.

Customers can continue to use their checks and ATM/debit cards and access their funds as usual, Heartland said in the press release.

"Our goal is that people will not feel much change at all. Eventually, we will consolidate the system and change the signs, but people will feel very comfortable with the seamless change," said Drake.

According to Crain’s, Heartland acquired $924 million in assets and $869 million in deposits. Citizens started as an agricultural bank in 1865. From 2000 to 2006, the bank rapidly expanded, roughly doubling in size to $1 billion in assets.

 The Crain’s story cited loan woes from the residential lending boom as the reason for the bank’s failure.