Local accounts and specialist borrowing under one roof
First Financial Bank serves households and businesses through a Midwest branch network, but some of its most distinctive work happens far beyond those branches. Alongside checking accounts, mortgages and business loans, the organization finances insurance agencies, restaurant franchisees and equipment, and helps companies manage foreign-currency payments. The present bank brings together a local banking history and specialist businesses built to serve narrower customer needs across the country. [3][4]
Its roots are in Hamilton, Ohio. First National Bank of Hamilton opened on August 15, 1863, under national charter number 56. The bank’s history describes later acquisitions of institutions including First National Bank of Middletown and First National Bank of Southwestern Ohio, followed by a broader holding-company structure in the early 1980s. The First Financial Bank brand was introduced in 2006. [3]
The name needs geographic precision. This is the Cincinnati-based First Financial Bank, FDIC certificate 6600, owned by First Financial Bancorp. It is not another institution elsewhere that happens to use First Financial in its name. Although its origins were as a national bank, it converted to an Ohio state charter on December 30, 2016 and is now a state member bank. [1][4]
MainSource changed both the map and the leadership
The April 2018 combination with MainSource Financial Group was a major step in the bank’s development. First Financial’s contemporary reporting records the completed acquisition and the appointment of MainSource chief executive Archie Brown as president and chief executive of First Financial and its bank. First Financial’s former chief executive Claude Davis became executive chairman. [5]
That leadership arrangement made the merger more than a change in branch signs. The surviving organization combined two management teams as well as customer relationships. The subsequent business retained a regional branch presence while developing offerings for borrowers whose needs were defined by their industry rather than their proximity to a banking center. Brown was still identified as president and chief executive in the July 2026 results announcement. [4][5][8]
What the specialist businesses actually finance
First Financial’s 2025 annual report describes Oak Street Funding as a lender to insurance businesses, registered investment advisers, accountants and indirect auto-finance companies. First Franchise Capital lends to restaurant franchisees. Both are identified as bank subsidiaries, and their financing can support acquisitions, ownership transitions and working capital. These are business loans tied to the cash flows of particular industries, rather than a separate retail bank for each brand. [4]
Summit Funding Group provides equipment and lease financing. A customer may need machinery or other productive equipment without paying its full price at once; financing spreads that cost over time. The group’s July 2026 results report $22.8 million of quarterly leasing-business income. That is parent-reported income for one business activity, not the size of the insured bank’s equipment-loan portfolio. [4][8]
Agile Premium Finance is a division of the bank that finances commercial insurance premiums. The 2025 report describes loans secured by the unearned portion of the insurance premium and an average original term of about ten months. Bannockburn, another division, provides currency payments, foreign-exchange and commodity hedging, and advisory services. These businesses add capabilities that differ from gathering deposits at a neighborhood branch. [4]
Westfield and BankFinancial brought new customers
First Financial completed its acquisition of Westfield Bancorp from Ohio Farmers Insurance Company on November 3, 2025. Westfield’s Northeast Ohio business included retail banking and services for commercial customers, insurance agencies and private-banking clients. The closing announcement said locations would initially keep the Westfield name pending system and product conversion. Ownership transfer and the customer-facing conversion were separate milestones. [6]
BankFinancial Corporation followed on January 1, 2026. The SEC closing report confirms that BankFinancial’s parent merged into First Financial Bancorp and that BankFinancial, National Association then merged into First Financial Bank on the same day, with First Financial Bank surviving. BankFinancial’s former separate charter is therefore not treated as a current sister bank within this profile. [7]
By the July results announcement, management reported that BankFinancial’s systems had been converted and that virtually all expected Westfield cost reductions had been realized. It expected further BankFinancial savings to phase in during the third quarter. The completed conversion is a reported operational event; the additional savings were still a forecast at the time. [8]
Finward is still a proposal
On July 21, 2026, First Financial announced an agreement to acquire Finward Bancorp, parent of Peoples Bank in Munster, Indiana. The planned exchange is 1.35 First Financial shares for each Finward share. The deal would extend the group’s Northwest Indiana and Chicago-area business, but Finward’s bank is not included in First Financial Bank’s June balance sheet. [8][9]
The September 28 proxy statement scheduled Finward’s shareholder vote for November 2, 2026 and described expected completion in the fourth quarter of 2026 or early in the first quarter of 2027, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals and other conditions. That later timing is more current than the initial July announcement’s fourth-quarter expectation. The contemplated bank merger would put Peoples Bank into First Financial Bank after the parent merger, at a time determined by First Financial. [9]
Peoples Bank is a common institutional name. Here it means Finward’s Indiana-chartered bank in Munster. It should not be confused with other Peoples banks in existing coverage, nor should an announced future merger be written as a completed acquisition. [9]
A supporting view of the June balance sheet
The insured bank’s June 30, 2026 FDIC figures show $22.351 billion in assets, $17.801 billion in deposits, $13.578 billion in net loans and leases, $4.791 billion in securities and $2.991 billion in equity. Net income was $171.697 million for the first six months of 2026. These are bank-level figures converted from thousands of dollars, distinct from First Financial Bancorp.’s quarterly consolidated earnings. [2]
Of $13.768 billion of gross loans and leases, $8.034 billion, or about 58.4%, was classified as real-estate lending. Commercial and industrial loans were $4.206 billion, about 30.6% of gross loans and leases. The mix helps show why the bank’s story includes both property lending and specialist business credit. Broad real-estate lending is not the same denominator or category as commercial-real-estate concentration. [2]
The acquisitions expanded the deposit base and customer network, while the specialist businesses broadened the sources of lending and fees. Those activities also expose the group to different business cycles and integration demands. The result is a regional bank whose reach cannot be understood from branch locations alone, and whose historical growth must be separated from transactions that are still awaiting approval. [4][8][9]
Sources
- FDIC institution directory, October 2, 2026 index; reviewed October 5Official sourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC June 30, 2026 bank financials; dollar fields in thousands; income year to dateOfficial sourceBack to text: ↑1↑2
- First Financial Bank official history; reviewed October 5, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑1↑2
- First Financial Bancorp. 2025 Form 10-K, filed February 19, 2026Filing / reportBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4↑5↑6↑7
- First Financial Bancorp. 2018 Form 10-K: MainSource combination and leadership successionFiling / reportBack to text: ↑1↑2
- First Financial Westfield acquisition closing, November 3, 2025SourceBack to text: ↑
- BankFinancial Form 8-K: parent and bank mergers completed January 1, 2026Filing / reportBack to text: ↑
- First Financial second-quarter results and Finward announcement, July 21, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4↑5
- First Financial–Finward proxy statement/prospectus, September 28, 2026Filing / reportBack to text: ↑1↑2↑3↑4