Banking

The company, which has expanded into dozens of new markets over the last five years, made its move into Richmond earlier this month and set up shop downtown.

The company, founded locally 20 years ago by Gil Grattan, signed a deal last month with a California-based private equity firm to take on its first ever round of outside capital.

The move was spurred by the firm luring a veteran local investment advisor from a rival to lead its expansion here.

The Richmond region’s biggest credit union has yet another initiative in the works to increase its size and stature in the state.

In a year when rising interest rates kept the banking industry on its toes, two of Richmond’s biggest financial institutions in particular grabbed repeated headlines.

One of Richmond’s biggest financial institutions has closed out the year by taking a small Charlottesville credit union under its wing.

As it awaits construction of its first Richmond-area branch near Willow Lawn, the $45 billion Pennsylvania-based bank has already scouted out a second location in the region.

Richmond’s biggest bank agreed to pay $1.5 million in penalties and repay at least $5 million to affected customers to settle charges that it illegally enrolled thousands in checking account overdraft programs without proper disclosures.

It’s been nearly a decade since a bank operated on the grounds of the western Henrico mall. That may soon change.

The merger is another example of a long-running trend of older, smaller credit unions looking to be merged into larger peers.