When Art and Robin Hill started their Panacea Brewing Co. in 2016, it started as a hobby. The Hills never guessed that just six years later they would have a storefront restaurant in a busy Wilmington shopping center and a flourishing brewing company to go with it. “What we have is definitely not what the plan was,” said Robin Hill. Hill says she and her ...

A federal judge formally dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed against Live Oak and Apiture last week after approving the companies’ settlement agreement with a former employee.  The companies agreed to pay a combined $4.65 million, which will be shared among 1,925 class members to settle their liabilities in the case.  Meanwhile, the case again ...

The income from the recent sale of its interest in financial technology firm Finxact presents a variety of opportunities for Live Oak Bancshares.   The company will realize about $120 million from Fiserv’s acquisition of all Finxact shares; it plans to leverage that capital in key areas, ranging from balance sheet enhancement to community support to strategic ...

First National Bank has earned yet another banking accolade, its parent FNB Corp. announced last month. For a second consecutive year, First National Bank, which operates three locations in the Wilmington market, has been ranked by Forbes as one of the World’s Best Banks.   The 2022 list, based solely on consumer feedback, includes only 75 banks in the U.S. an ...

First Carolina Bank, which operates one full-service office in Wilmington, has landed on the list of the 100 best-performing community banks in the country. The bank, which ranked 31st, is the only North Carolina-based institution on the list.   S&P Global Market Intelligence, which researched and compiled the data, defines community banks as those with less tha ...

Live Oak Bancshares’ first-quarter earnings report showed better results than some analysts had expected. The company, the parent of Live Oak Bank, reported net income of $34.5 million for Q1 of the company’s 2022 fiscal year. That translates to $0.76 per diluted share. “The beginning of 2022 provided continued indications that the small business marke ...

North Carolina’s Department of Revenue (DOR) has announced the much-anticipated rollout of a second phase of its Business Recovery Grant Program. Beginning May 2, small businesses may apply for grants from the remaining pool of about $200 million.   The program “will issue a payment to an eligible North Carolina business that suffered an economic loss of ...

Customers Bank, which entered the Wilmington market last fall, has opened a loan production office in Mayfaire.   The new office is at 6740 Rock Spring Road, Suite 230 in the Mayfaire 4 building. It will focus on commercial lending as well as residential mortgage lending, said Bradley Neigel, Customers Bank regional president for the Carolinas.   Customers Ba ...

First Carolina Bank just may have set a record. The community bank, which has one location in Wilmington, announced the completion of a capital raise that yielded $115 million before deducting fees and expenses generated by the offering of 4.6 million shares of its common stock.   This amount of investment from private investors in one capital raise is unprecedented ...

Officials at nCino had plenty of positive news to report Thursday when the company unveiled financial results of its fourth quarter and fiscal year 2022, which ended Jan. 31, 2022.  “With new logos [additional customers], significant expansion deals, continued traction internationally and the completion of the SimpleNexus acquisition, the fourth quarter was a ...