Meridian Bank Texas
Announces Lake Dallas Office

FORT WORTH, Texas (Aug. 14, 2007) – Meridian Bank Texas, headquartered in Fort Worth, today announced the official opening of its Lake Dallas office headed by Senior Vice President John Spencer. The Lake Dallas office will focus on real estate and construction lending in North Texas.

As an accomplished real estate lender with 30 years of construction lending experience in North Texas, including Denton, Flower Mound and Lewisville areas, Spencer has built many successful long-term relationships with homebuilders and real estate developers that have resulted in multiple projects and businesses. Successful real estate projects have included residential land development, office, retail and multi-family housing.

Associate Holly Brown, a senior lending assistant/bank officer in the Lake Dallas office, joins Spencer. Brown has been a real estate development specialist for the past eight years in Denton. She also is a lifelong resident of Denton County.

“We have a commitment to exceptional customer service and are excited about building customer relationships in North Texas and the surrounding areas,” said Spencer.

Spencer is a member of the Dallas and Denton Texas Home Builders Associations.

Meridian Bank Texas is part of Marquette Financial Companies, a $2.6 billion privately held financial services company owned by the Carl Pohlad family in Minneapolis. The Pohlad family has been involved in Tarrant County dating back to the 1980’s, with its ownership of First State Bank of Texas. Local sister companies include Marquette Commercial Finance, Inc., Marquette Business Credit, Inc., Marquette Consumer Finance, LLC, and NorthMarq Capital, Inc.

ADD ONE – MERIDIAN BANK TEXAS LAKE DALLAS OFFICE

The strength of these relationships gives Meridian Bank Texas the lending capability and capital resources to offer highly personalized banking and relationship-based services geared toward entrepreneurs. Marquette Financial has a nationwide presence with commercial banking, consumer, commercial finance, residential construction lending and commercial real estate financing. Pohlad family holdings also include significant interests in the beverage, entertainment and real estate industries, as well as the ownership of the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball team.

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