First Busey Profile
First Busey Corporation operates as the bank holding company for Busey Bank that provides a broad range of financial services.
The company conducts the business of banking and provides related banking services, asset management, brokerage, and fiduciary services through the bank, and provides payment technology solutions through FirsTech. The company also has various other subsidiaries.
The company offers a range of diversified financial products and services for consumers and businesses, including online and mobile banking capabilities to conveniently serve its customers' needs. Commercial services include commercial, commercial real estate, real estate construction, and agricultural loans, as well as commercial depository services, such as cash management. Retail banking services include residential real estate, home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, customary types of demand and savings deposits, money transfers, safe deposit services, and individual retirement accounts and other fiduciary services through its banking center, automated teller machines, and technology-based networks.
The company's principal sources of income are interest and fees on loans and investments, wealth management fees, service fees, and payment technology solutions revenue. The company's primary markets are central Illinois; northern Illinois, including the Chicago metropolitan area; the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area; southwest Florida; and central Indiana.
The company provides a full range of asset management, investment, brokerage, fiduciary, philanthropic advisory, tax preparation, and farm management services to individuals, businesses, and foundations through its Wealth Management business. For individuals, the company provides investment management, trust and estate advisory services, and financial planning. For businesses, it provides investment management, business succession planning, and employee retirement plan services. For foundations, the company provides investment management, investment strategy consulting, and fiduciary services. Brokerage-related services are offered by Busey Investment Services, a division of Busey Bank, through a third-party arrangement. In addition, the company provides professional farm management and brokerage services to the agricultural industry.
FirsTech
FirsTech, Inc. (FirsTech), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank, provides comprehensive and innovative payment technology solutions. FirsTech's multi-channel payment platform allows businesses to collect payments from their customers in a variety of ways to enable fast, frictionless payments. Payment method vehicles include text-based mobile bill pay; interactive voice response; electronic payment concentration delivered to Automated Clearing House networks, money management, and credit card networks; walk-in payment processing for customers at retail pay agents; customer service payments made over a telephone; direct debit services; and lockbox remittance processing for customers to make payments by mail. FirsTech also provides additional tools to help clients with billing, reconciliation, bill reminders, and treasury services. FirsTech's client base represents a diverse set of industries, with a higher concentration in highly regulated industries, such as financial institutions, utility, insurance, and telecommunications industries.
First Busey Risk Management
First Busey Risk Management, previously a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, was dissolved on December 18, 2023.
Banking Center Markets
The company serves the Illinois banking market with banking centers. The company's Illinois markets feature several Fortune 1000 companies. Those organizations, coupled with large healthcare and higher education sectors, anchor the communities in which they are located and has provided a comparatively stable foundation for housing, employment, and small business. The company has banking centers in Missouri. The company has banking centers within the boundaries of the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area, including branches in both Illinois and Missouri. The company has banking centers in southwest Florida. The company has banking center in the Indianapolis, Indiana area.
Loan Categories
The company's lending activities can be summarized into two primary categories: commercial and retail. Within these primary categories, loans are further classified into five primary lending areas. The commercial category includes commercial loans, commercial real estate loans, and real estate construction loans. The retail category includes retail real estate loans and retail other loans.
Commercial Loans
Commercial loans typically comprise working capital loans or business expansion loans, including loans for asset purchases and other business loans. Commercial loans will generally be guaranteed, in full or a material percentage, by the primary owners of the business. Commercial loans are made based primarily on the borrower's historical and projected cash flows and secondarily on the underlying assets pledged as collateral by the borrower.
Commercial Real Estate Loans
The commercial environment, along with the academic presence in some of the company's markets, provides for the majority of its commercial lending opportunities to be commercial real estate related, including multi-unit housing. As the majority of the company's loan portfolio is within the commercial real estate class, its goal is to maintain a high quality, geographically diverse portfolio of commercial real estate loans. Commercial real estate loans are subject to underwriting standards and guidelines similar to commercial loans. Commercial real estate loans are generally guaranteed, in full or a material percentage, by the primary owners of the business. Repayment of these loans is primarily dependent on the cash flows of the underlying property. However, commercial real estate loans generally must be supported by an adequate underlying collateral value.
Real Estate Construction Loans
Real estate construction loans are primarily commercial in nature. Loan proceeds are monitored by the company and advanced for the improvement of real estate in which the company holds a mortgage. Real estate construction loans will generally be guaranteed, in full or a material percentage, by the developer or primary owners of the business. These loans are subject to underwriting standards and guidelines similar to commercial loans. The loan generally must be supported by an adequate as completed value of the underlying project.
Retail Real Estate Loans
Retail real estate loans consist of direct consumer loans that include residential real estate, home equity lines of credit, and home equity loans. In 2023, the company retained a larger percentage of originated retail real estate loans in its portfolio, electing to sell a smaller percentage to secondary market purchasers. As retail real estate loan underwriting is subject to specific regulations, the company typically underwrites its retail real estate loans to conform to widely accepted standards.
Retail Other Loans
Retail other loans consist of installment loans to individuals, including automotive loans and indirect lending. These loans are centrally underwritten utilizing the borrower's financial history, including credit scores, as well as information about the underlying collateral. Retail other loans also include whole-life loans which are secured by the cash value of underlying life insurance policies. Repayment of retail other loans is expected from the borrower's cash flows.
Investment Portfolio
As of December 31, 2023, the company's investment portfolio included U.S. Treasury securities; obligations of U.S. government corporations and agencies; obligations of states and political subdivisions; asset-backed securities; commercial mortgage-backed securities; residential mortgage-backed securities; and corporate debt securities.
Deposits
As of December 31, 2023, the company's deposits included noninterest-bearing demand deposits; interest-bearing transaction deposits; saving deposits and money market deposits; and time deposits.
Segments
The company operates through three segments: Banking, Wealth Management, and FirsTech. The company's three operating segments are strategic business units that are separately managed, as they offer different products and services and have different marketing strategies.
The Banking Operating
The Banking operating segment provides a full range of banking services to individual and corporate customers through the company's wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Busey Bank, with banking centers in Illinois; the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area; southwest Florida; and Indianapolis, Indiana.
Banking services offered to individual customers include customary types of demand and savings deposits, money transfers, safe deposit services, individual retirement accounts and other fiduciary services, automated teller machines, and technology-based networks, as well as a variety of loan products, including residential real estate, home equity lines of credit, and consumer loans. Banking services offered to corporate customers include commercial, commercial real estate, real estate construction, and agricultural loans, as well as commercial depository services such as cash management.
The Wealth Management Operating
The Wealth Management operating segment provides a full range of asset management, investment, brokerage, fiduciary, philanthropic advisory, tax preparation, and farm management services to individuals, businesses, and foundations. Services are provided through Busey Capital Management, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank, and Busey Wealth Management, a division of the bank.
Wealth management services tailored to individuals include trust and estate advisory services and financial planning. Business services include business succession planning and employee retirement plan services. Services for foundations include investment strategy consulting and fiduciary services.
The FirsTech Operating
The FirsTech operating segment provides comprehensive and innovative payment technology solutions through Busey Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, FirsTech. FirsTech's multi-channel payment platform allows businesses to collect payments from their customers in a variety of ways to enable fast, frictionless payments. Payment method vehicles include, but are not limited to, text-based mobile bill pay; interactive voice response; electronic payment concentration delivered to Automated Clearing House networks, money management, and credit card networks; walk-in payment processing for customers at retail pay agents; customer service payments made over a telephone; direct debit services; and lockbox remittance processing for customers to make payments by mail. FirsTech also provides additional tools to help clients with billing, reconciliation, bill reminders, and treasury services.
FirsTech's client base represents a diverse set of industries, with a higher concentration in highly regulated industries, such as financial institutions, utility, insurance, and telecommunications industries.
Supervision and Regulation
As a bank holding company, the company is registered with, and subject to regulation, supervision, and enforcement by, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (BHCA).
Under the BHCA, the company is subject to periodic examination by the Federal Reserve and is required to file with the Federal Reserve periodic reports of its operations and such additional information regarding the company and the bank as the Federal Reserve may require.
In order to maintain its status as a financial holding company, the company and the bank must be well-capitalized, well-managed, and the bank must have a least a satisfactory CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) rating.
The company's common stock is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act); and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act). Consequently, the company is subject to the information, proxy solicitation, insider trading and other restrictions and requirements of the SEC under the Exchange Act.
The bank is an Illinois-chartered bank. Its deposit accounts are insured by the DIF (Deposit Insurance Fund of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)) to the maximum extent provided under federal law and FDIC regulations, $250,000 per insured depositor category. As an Illinois-chartered FDIC-insured bank, the bank is subject to the examination, supervision, reporting, and enforcement requirements of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (DFPR), the chartering authority for Illinois banks. The bank is also regulated by the FDIC, designated by federal law as the primary federal regulator of insured state banks that, like the bank, are not members of the Federal Reserve System.
As an FDIC-insured institution, the bank is required to pay deposit insurance premium assessments to the FDIC. The CRA requires the bank to have a continuing and affirmative obligation in a safe and sound manner to help meet the credit needs of the entire community, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. Applications for acquisitions are affected by the evaluation of the bank's effectiveness in meeting its CRA requirements.
History
First Busey Corporation was founded in 1868. The company, a Nevada corporation, was incorporated in 1993.
