Mid Penn Bank hopes to open New Holland branch

The move is the Millersburg-based bank’s most recent effort to expand its presence in Lancaster County, where recent mergers have shaken up the banking market.

Mid Penn submitted applications for the branch, planned for the New Holland Shopping Center at 685 W. Main St., this week.

The bank expects to employ three to five people at the branch, which will offer personal, business and lending services, according to a news release from Mid Penn.

The New Holland location would be Mid Penn’s third in Lancaster County. It opened one in Mount Joy Township in early 2015 and has another in Manheim Township set to open in early December.

Mid Penn is one of several banks to accelerate expansion into the county since North Carolina-based BB&T Bank purchased Susquehanna Bank, formerly one of the county’s biggest financial institutions. Others to expand their reach in the area include Lower Paxton Township-based Centric Bank, Shippensburg-based Orrstown Bank and York Township-based PeoplesBank, among others.

The timing of Susquehanna’s departure, however, was just a happy coincidence for Mid Penn, which already had plans to expand into that market, said Mid Penn President and CEO Rory Ritrievi.

The Mount Joy Township branch, tucked in the far northeast corner of Lancaster County, was a natural extension of the bank’s presence in nearby Dauphin County. By early 2016, that branch was experiencing “tremendous success,” Ritrievi said, and, around that same time, the bank as a whole was expanding its agricultural lending capabilities.

Those factors, combined with the county’s overall economic vibrancy, created a perfect window to reach new customers.

“The market disruption certainly didn’t slow those plans down,” Ritrievi said. “It just made us look really smart.”

Mid Penn has just over $1 billion in assets and 20 branches in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Luzerne, Northumberland and Schuylkill counties.

Could more branches be coming to Lancaster County?

Ritrievi is not ruling out the possibility. Because of the rise in mobile and online services, banks no longer need a branch on every corner, he said, but Mid Penn will continue to evaluate opportunities in Lancaster and the rest of the midstate.

“We’re following our own game plan,” he said. “And if the market disruption helps that out, that’s great.”