Cincinnati-area bank to acquire rival

LCNB National Bank announced Monday it will acquire Dayton-area Brookville National Bank in a $12.6 million deal.

Expected to close in mid-2015, the deal will give LCNB National Bank two new locations in Montgomery County, for a total of 37 throughout Southwest and central Ohio. Under terms of the deal, Brookville shareholders will receive two shares of LCNB stock, plus $15.75 cash.

"We are excited about the opportunity to partner with BNB in building a stronger franchise in the Dayton MSA. This acquisition continues our strategy of being an acquirer of choice of attractive banks in and around our core markets," said LCNB CEO Stephen Wilson.

The deal is only the latest bank takeover in a dizzying flurry of acquisitions occuring nationally as small banks like Brookville National struggle to do enough business in a sluggish economy with low interest rates, while also paying for higher costs to comply with heavier bank regulations under Dodd-Frank financial reform.

LCNB has made two other acquisitions in the last two years: Eaton National Bank & Trust early this year and Sycamore National Bank in 2013.

Another local acquisitive lender: First Financial Bancorp, which has expanded into Columbus, Dayton and Indiana through a series of deals in the last five years.

Local banks are also being gobbled up: In September, Crestview Hills-based Bank of Kentucky agreed to sell out to North Carolina's BB&T in a $363 million deal. In August, Wilmington-based National Bank and Trust Co. agreed to be acquired by Marietta-based Peoples Bank in a $109 million deal.