First Community Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCBC) is a $2.21 billion bank holding company and the parent company of First Community Bank of Bluefield, Virginia. As of 2012 First Community Bank had 53 locations in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, and five locations operating as Peoples Community Bank in Tennessee.[1] First Community Bancshares also includes GreenPoint Insurance Group Inc. of High Point, North Carolina.

History
Princeton Bank & Trust Co. in Princeton, West Virginia began in 1874. The bank changed its name to First Community Bank of Princeton in March 1985.[2]

Flat Top National Bank of Bluefield, Virginia was chartered in 1903 and consolidated with Bluefield National Bank May 2, 1932. Shareholders approved a plan to reorganize November 4, 1982, making the bank a subsidiary of Flat Top Bankshares, Inc.[3]

First Community Bancshares incorporated in Delaware November 7, 1989. In a merger of equals, First Community and Flat Top joined May 9, 1990.
On January 29, 1993, First Community bought People's Bank of Richmond for $250,000. On July 3, 1996, in a deal worth about $8.9 million, First Community bought Citizens Bank of Tazewell, headquartered in Tazewell, Virginia. On April 9, 1997, First Community took over Blue Ridge Bank of Sparta, North Carolina for about $24.6 million.

On September 28, 1999, First Community Bank bought United First Mortgage.[4]

On November 1, 2000, First Community bought Citizens Southern Bank of Beckley, West Virginia, which started in 1995 and had $65 million in assets, for $6.5 million. First Community was the third-largest banking company headquartered in Virginia, and it had 33 branches in Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, while two-thirds of its operations were in West Virginia.[5][6]

In 2001, First Community had $1.29 billion in assets and a mortgage subsidiary based in Richmond. As a result of the BB&T purchase of F&M National, First Community bought branches in Clifton Forge, Emporia and Drakes Branch. This gave the bank a presence in the eastern part of the state.[7]

In 2003, First Community completed its $26.6 million takeover of CommonWealth Bank of Richmond, with four branches, $148.7 million in assets and $111.1 million in deposits. Along with two branches opening in June 2003 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the deal gave First Community Bank 46 branches in Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina.[8] First Community Bancshares president and CEO John M. Mendez said Charlottesville, Hampton Roads and possibly Roanoke were other markets in which the bank planned growth.[9]

With $1.6 billion in assets as of September 30, 2003, after the BB&T purchase of First Virginia Banks, First Community Bancshares was the largest Virginia-based bank holding company.[10][11]

As of April 1, 2004, First Community Bank acquired People's Community Bank of Johnson City, Tennessee, which was a subsidiary of PCB Bancorp, Inc.[12]

In 2004, First Community sold its mortgage subsidiary to Access National Bank.[13]

In 2006, First Community was the largest community bank in North Carolina's Piedmont Triad. The bank had three branches in Winston-Salem and planned one more branch there and one in Clemmons, with a Kernersville loan office becoming a branch. FirstCommunity had $1.95 billion in assets.[14]

In 2009, First Community completed a $10.5 million deal for TriStone Community Bank, increasing the number of Forsyth County branches from four to six. TriStone chief executive Simpson "Skip" Brown Jr. became the First Community Piedmont Triad regional president, and the bank's North Carolina headquarters moved to the former TriStone branch on Jonestown Road.[15][16]

On March 1, 2012, it was announced that First Community would purchase Richmond-based Peoples Bank of Virginia, with four branches and $286 million in assets, in a $40.6 million deal.[17]

On June 8, 2012, Whiteville, North Carolina-based Waccamaw Bank, which had three branches in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, failed, reopening as First Community Bank on June 11 after a deal with the FDIC. Waccamaw had operated for 14 years and had 16 branches in all, with $533.1 million in assets and $472.7 million in deposits.[18]