Federal Reserve Approves Bank First’s Acquisition of SpiritBank

Key Facts

The Federal Reserve Board on September 22, 2026, approved Bank First’s application to acquire SpiritBank Corp. and merge SpiritBank, a regulatory step in a deal announced in June. The approval clears the way for the bank merger and the establishment of branches at SpiritBank locations, but does not mean the acquisition has closed. In an update issued on October 21, Bank First said the deal remained on schedule to close in October. The company’s June filing had projected a closing in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The deal has therefore moved from agreement to regulatory approval, while the actual closing remained pending, according to the company’s latest statement.

Bank First entered into an agreement on June 10, 2026, to acquire SpiritBank Corp., an Oklahoma-registered company, and SpiritBank, a privately held community bank headquartered in Tulsa. The Federal Reserve Board’s approval covered the application to acquire and merge the company, as well as the indirect acquisition of the bank. The board also approved the merger of Bank First and SpiritBank, and the establishment and operation of branches at locations where the target bank operates. These arrangements place SpiritBank’s locations within the branches that may be operated after the merger, but the filing does not specify when they will begin operating. Bank First said when it announced the agreement that Spirit would continue operating under its current name until it is merged into Bank First.

Spirit had about $939.6 million in assets when the deal was announced, including $618.4 million in loans and $847.2 million in deposits, according to Bank First’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figures give a picture of the target bank’s size at the time of the announcement, with a deposit base exceeding its reported loans. The available information here does not state a financial value for the deal. Bank First described Spirit as a privately held community bank headquartered in Tulsa and said expanding its business base in the city and adding the communities of Bristow and Sapulpa were important to it. The company’s statement quoted its chief executive as saying: "Oklahoma is our home, and we are pleased to welcome two distinct communities, Bristow and Sapulpa, to our family; expanding our business base in Tulsa is just as important."

The deal-timing update came in an earnings statement issued on October 21, which showed Bank First’s net income at $67.3 million in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $62.7 million in the same period of 2025. Diluted earnings per share were $1.97 in the third quarter, versus $1.85 a year earlier, according to the company’s statement. In the same statement, Bank First listed the Spirit deal among developments still on schedule and identified October as the expected closing month. These figures appear in a financial disclosure issued close to the deal update, and the statement does not say that the third-quarter results were related to it. The update also does not give a specific date in October for completing the deal.

In trading, Bank First shares closed at $112.36 on October 22, 2026, according to EL7 data. The recorded closes on earlier trading days were $109.03 on October 16, $108.01 on October 19, then $110.16 on October 20 and $109.73 on October 21. The close rose between October 21 and 22, following a decline in the previous session from the October 20 close. The available data here do not include the session high or low on October 22. The prices also do not isolate the deal update’s effect from other factors influencing the stock’s trading.

On October 21, Bank First described an October closing as on schedule, after its June filing had projected completion in the fourth quarter of 2026. The initial filing made closing subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, while the Federal Reserve Board approved the deal on September 22. According to the company’s latest update, the next step remains completion of the deal in October; the available evidence contains no subsequent confirmation that it has closed. Until the merger, the company said Spirit would continue operating under its current name. Upon closing and merger, the approval allows Bank First to operate branches at SpiritBank locations, according to the board’s decision.