Capital G Holding Company, the parent of Capital G Bank, and First Bermuda Group have merged their activities to create a firm with over $1.4 billion in combined deposits and a $970 million loan book.

In the short term FBG will be operated under the management of Capital G as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Capital G Bank before eventually being integrated fully into the wider group. While the firms say that 2011 will be a “transition year”, they have started work on their integration in earnest and have already standardised rates across the two institutions. The firms originally signed a memorandum of understanding to merge in October of last year.

Capital G has managed to retain most of FBG’s employees, taking the newly-combined firm's staff roster to over 200. Capital G Bank itself is a relative newcomer to Bermuda’s banking scene, having secured its banking licence in 2001, but it has however been active in banking and lending in Bermuda for some 60 years. FBG, meanwhile, was founded in 2001.