First Community Bank SC: A $2.4B Bank, a Georgia Deal and a New CEO

By Isaac WelchApril 30, 2026Updated October 22, 20265 min readWhat RAVEN would save First Community

Updated October 22, 2026, with second- and third-quarter 2026 results, the completed Signature Bank of Georgia acquisition and the bank's leadership transition. An earlier version of this article misidentified the merger partner and understated the bank's size.

Q3 2026 update: First Community reported third-quarter net income of $8.0 million, or $0.85 per diluted share, on October 21, 2026. Total assets were $2.36 billion at September 30, with $1.61 billion in loans and $2.01 billion in deposits. The net interest margin was 3.59% (tax-equivalent), return on average assets 1.34%, and nonperforming assets just 0.04% of total assets. The Signature acquisition accounts for $195.7 million of the year's loan growth (company release).

First Community Bank of Lexington, South Carolina, has spent 2026 doing three things at once: absorbing an acquisition, posting its best earnings in years and planning a change at the top.

On January 8, 2026, it closed its purchase of Signature Bank of Georgia, a two-office bank in Sandy Springs with about $274 million in assets. In July, it reported second-quarter net income up 46.5% from a year earlier. The same day, it announced that J. Ted Nissen, CEO and president of the bank, will retire on December 31, 2026.

The Deal

First Community Corporation (Nasdaq: FCCO) announced the Signature acquisition on July 14, 2025, in an all-stock deal valued at about $41.6 million, or about $50 million at year-end 2025 prices. Signature brought $229.8 million in deposits, $195.7 million in loans, SBA and USDA lending, and a foothold in the Atlanta metro.

The systems conversion was completed in mid-March. Merger expenses fell from $1.6 million in the first quarter to $503,000 in the second.

The bank now runs 23 offices. Twenty are in South Carolina: six in Lexington County, four in Richland, three in Greenville, two in Newberry, and one each in Aiken, Anderson, Kershaw, Pickens and York counties. Three are in Georgia: Sandy Springs, Augusta and Columbia County.

The Numbers

From the company's second-quarter release and the bank's June 30 call report:

  • Total assets: $2.38 billion, up from $2.05 billion a year earlier (bank level, FDIC)
  • Loans: $1.58 billion, with organic growth of 11% annualized in the first half
  • Deposits: $2.03 billion
  • Q2 net income: $7.6 million, up 46.5%; first-half net income $13.1 million, up 42.6%
  • Net interest margin: 3.51%, the ninth straight quarter of expansion
  • Efficiency ratio: 58.8% in Q2, down from 66.0% in Q1
  • Nonperforming assets: 0.04% of total assets
0.04% First Community's nonperforming assets as a share of total assets at June 30, 2026, per the company's second-quarter release.

Fee businesses are growing too. Investment advisory revenue rose 30.6% from a year earlier, and assets under management reached $1.38 billion. Mortgage banking income rose 21.7%.

A Commercial Real Estate Bank

First Community is, by its loan book, a commercial real estate lender. Of $1.59 billion in gross loans at June 30, 2026:

  • Nonfarm, nonresidential real estate: $906 million (57%), of which $371 million is owner-occupied and $535 million is not
  • One-to-four family residential: $337 million
  • Construction and land: $167 million
  • Commercial and industrial: $90 million
  • Multifamily: $48 million
Investor real estate, meaning non-owner-occupied commercial property, multifamily and construction, comes to about $750 million, or 47% of loans. That is a concentration regulators watch. So far, credit has been clean: second-quarter net charge-offs were $21,000.

The Leadership Change

The transition splits one job into two. Effective January 1, 2027, Vaughan R. Dozier becomes CEO of the bank and Joseph A. "Drew" Painter becomes president. Both now serve as co-commercial and retail banking officers, and both join the company and bank boards. Michael Crapps remains CEO and president of the holding company, focused on strategy, capital and investor relations. Nissen will consult through 2027.

The chairman said Nissen is leaving earlier than planned for personal health reasons.

What the Next Team Inherits

A new bank CEO inherits a bank in good shape: a widening margin, clean credit, a finished conversion and two growing fee businesses. The open question is how First Community brings in new borrowers in its newest markets.

The bank moved its website to firstcommunitybankers.com this year. Its online lending paths, as of October 2026:

  • Mortgage: an "Apply Online" button that hands off to a separate mortgage portal, with rates listed as "Call for Rates"
  • Consumer loans, HELOCs and auto loans: a "Request a Loan" contact form
  • Business loans and commercial real estate: the same contact form
In Lexington and Columbia, where the bank has three decades of relationships, a contact form works because the borrower often already knows a banker. In Sandy Springs and Augusta, a new borrower comparing banks online sees a form and a wait.

A commercial book this concentrated in real estate also means heavy files: entity documents, tax returns, rent rolls and personal financial statements for every guarantor. Collecting and checking those documents at the start of the application, rather than through rounds of follow-up, is where the next efficiency gains are. The margin has done most of the work so far. Throughput has to do the rest.