mBank is proud of its 80+ year history of being a proactive community bank based in the Upper Peninsula and serving the needs of all our communities by providing high quality products and services through friendly and knowledgeable local bankers. We look forward to continuing to build long lasting relationships with our customers, loyally supporting our communities through public service and capital contributions, providing good jobs and career growth to our employees, and continuing to provide strong returns to our stockholders.
 

Community-Focused from the Beginning

mBank was originally chartered in 1934 under the name of First National Bank in Manistique by a group of civic-minded local investors. During that inaugural year, the company had total deposits of $154,000. By its 40th anniversary, First National Bank in Manistique had deposits in excess of $17 million and total assets of $18.5 million. The bank made loans to businesses in numerous industries such as mining, logging and retail, many of which mBank still proudly serves today.
 

Continued Growth

Over the next 21 years, the bank acquired several other financial institutions in the area including those in Stephenson and Newberry. By 1998, the branch network had expanded into the Northern Lower Peninsula with offices in Traverse City, Gaylord and Kaleva. At this time, the numerous separate banks that had been acquired were consolidated into a single entity known as North Country Bank and Trust. Until 2004, North Country Bank and Trust continued to experience periods of growth both organically and through acquisition. Some challenging times resulted in the need for the company to search for a new investor base and fresh capital. Shortly thereafter, in December 2004, the corporation was successfully recapitalized. With $30 million in new capital and under the new leadership, the bank renewed its focus on the customers, employees, communities and stockholders that it had served for many years.
 

A Strong Commitment to Small Business

In 2005, the bank further cemented its new identity and corporate ideals by changing its name to mBank. During this same time, the full-service Southeast Michigan office (located in Birmingham) was opened as the bank looked to initiate and build new relationships in Michigan’s largest market. In 2008, the bank once again showed its resilience in successfully navigating the difficult financial industry environment caused by the nationwide economic recession. In a time of an unprecedented amount of bank failures and struggles, mBank remained healthy, well capitalized and grew while still making customer service and stockholder interests its top priority.
 
mBank is continuously recognized by the U.S. SBA Michigan District as the Business Development Lender of the Year (2008, 2009, 2010) as well as by the U.S. Small Business Administration with the Community Lender of the Year award (2009, 2010, 2012). mBank often ranks in the annual “Top 15” SBA lenders in Michigan by both number of transactions consummated and total dollar amount of its loans.
 

Growth

In December of 2012, the Mackinac Financial Corporation (mBank’s holding company) Board of Directors announced the first stockholder dividend since April of 2002 marking the continued success of the company. As the year 2012 closed with total assets of $545 million and core deposits in excess of $395 million, it made mBank approximately the 18th largest chartered bank in the State of Michigan (out of approximately 125) in terms of total assets.
 
The year 2014 marked even more growth for mBank as Mackinac acquired the Peninsula Financial Corporation (Peninsula), the holding company for Peninsula Bank. Following the closing of the acquisition, Peninsula Bank was consolidated into mBank and all branches opened as mBank locations—increasing mBank's branch presence to 17 locations and assets totaling over $727 million, making mBank the largest bank (based on asset size) headquartered in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 
 
In April of 2016, Mackinac acquired The First National Bank of Eagle River (FNBER) of Eagle River, Wisconsin, from its holding company Ellis Bankshares, Inc. (Ellis). The transaction was the first outside of the State of Michigan for Mackinac. Combined with mBank's current Michigan locations, the addition of the three FNBER Northern Wisconsin offices increased the total number of mBank branches from 17 to 20 and made mBank the 12th largest bank by asset size headquartered in Michigan (out of approximately 108) with assets totaling over $860 million.
 
In 2016, the Mackinac Corporation completed its second acquisition that year on August 31st of Niagara Bancorporation (“Niagara”) and its wholly owned subsidiary, First National Bank of Niagara.  Niagara had four branch offices increasing mBank’s Northern Wisconsin footprint and increasing mBank’s assets by approximately $67 million.  Shortly thereafter, mBank surpassed the $1 billion mark in assets.  
 
In May of 2018, Mackinac completed the all-stock merger of First Federal of Northern Michigan Bancorp, Inc. (FFNM), Alpena, Michigan, with and into Mackinac. FFNM’s subsidiary bank, First Federal of Northern Michigan, was consolidated into mBank and all Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan branches opened as mBank locations, increasing total mBank branches from 23 to 29. The transaction increased Mackinac’s post-transaction assets to an estimated $1.3 billion.  
 
In October of 2018, Mackinac completed the all-cash acquisition of Lincoln Community Bank (Lincoln), Merrill, Wisconsin, with and into Mackinac. Lincoln was consolidated into mBank and the Northern Wisconsin branch opened as an mBank location, increasing total mBank branches from 29 to 30. The transaction increased Mackinac’s post-transaction assets to an estimated $1.32 billion.