PUNGO — The Farmers Bank branch at ‘downtown’ Pungo is scheduled to close in April, leaving the rural village in the southern city without its own bank again.
Vernon Towler, president and chief executive officer of Farmers Bank, on Friday, Jan. 13, wrote to customers that the branch will close on Friday, April 14.
The bank operated for about three years in the village. Its initial Pungo office was in Pungo Square Shopping Center before it moved nearby to the former site of a Wells Fargo branch that closed in 2019.
Farmers Bank is now part of TowneBank and will formally come under the TowneBank name in the spring, according to Towler’s letter. TowneBank already has a location in the Courthouse area near the Virginia Beach Municipal Center.
During an interview on Thursday, Jan. 19, Bob Aston, chairperson of the board of TowneBank, said the choice to close the Pungo branch came down to a business decision about operating two locations that are close to each other.
“They may not be in the same pew, but they’re in the same church,” he said.
The bank offers courier service for business deposits and remote technology deposits to assist customers, he said.
The banks in August announced an agreement merging Farmers Bank into TowneBank. In his letter, Towler wrote that employees from the Pungo office will shift to other locations in the area.
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Is the Farmers Bank building and land for sale? If so by whom?