Fifth Third Bank<\/a> opened its first Golden State branch this week, the opening salvo in a planned 85-branch statewide buildout.<\/p>\nThe branch at 7160 N. First St. occupies a 4,950-square-foot space \u2014 the former home of Chase Bank \u2014 and represents the bank\u2019s first retail presence in a state where it already has a growing commercial banking footprint. Fifth Third expanded its Central Valley commercial team in 2025 and added a second office in the region.<\/p>\n
The new branch is designed around what the bank calls an integrated model: walk-in service from local bankers alongside access to Fifth Third\u2019s mobile app and Momentum Banking platform, meant to allow customers to handle routine transactions or have more in-depth financial conversations in the same space.<\/p>\n
The Fresno branch is also the first Fifth Third-branded location ahead of a larger conversion: later this year, the bank plans to rebrand the California branches it inherited through its February merger with Comerica Inc. into Fifth Third locations. That deal, which created the ninth-largest bank in the country, added significant California retail infrastructure to Fifth Third\u2019s portfolio \u2014 Comerica had long operated branches in Fresno and across the state. The combined institution holds about $294 billion in total assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cFresno is a city rooted in possibility \u2014 a vibrant hub at the heart of California\u2019s Central Valley where growth and agricultural innovation intersect,\u201d said Geraud Smith, Fifth Third\u2019s region president for Northern California. \u201cOpening our first California financial center here reflects both our confidence in Fresno\u2019s momentum and our dedication to bringing clients \u2014 from commercial to consumer \u2014 modern, intuitive banking solutions that help them thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith brings decades of banking experience to the role, including 20 years as a regional manager with Wells Fargo. He also previously worked with Tri Counties Bank, Illume Agriculture and Valley Republic Bank.<\/p>\n
Fifth Third has made a notable push into Central Valley agriculture, serving as lead lender on financing for two large vertically integrated agriculture companies and booking roughly $400 million in commitments this year. The bank has also joined as an associate member of the American Pistachio Growers, Western Growers Association and the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, and is a corporate partner of Ag One at Fresno State.<\/p>\n
The bank\u2019s California expansion is part of a broader national growth strategy. Fifth Third says its new branches opened in 2024 and 2025 averaged $25 million in deposits in their first year, hitting 200 percent of deposit targets and reaching profitability within three years. The bank uses proprietary data tools \u2014 including geospatial analysis and anonymized mobility data \u2014 to identify branch locations, a methodology it says allowed it to lock up 200 Southeast locations planned through 2028.<\/p>\n
Fifth Third was founded in 1858 and operates more than 1,100 branches nationally.<\/p>\n
The bank\u2019s \u201cFifth Third\u201d moniker dates to 1908, when Cincinnati\u2019s Fifth National Bank and Third National Bank<\/a> merged. Though Third National was the larger of the two, legend has it that management deliberately put \u201cFifth\u201d first \u2014 \u201cThird Fifth\u201d sounded a little too much like a liquor order during an era when the Prohibition movement was gaining steam.<\/p>\n\t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fifth Third Bank branch at 7160 N. First St. in Northeast Fresno, depicted in a photo illustration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[17430,112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-256341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fifth-third-bank","9":"tag-fresno","10":"tag-fresno-headlines","11":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"bank](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/fifththird.png\")
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