Bank Branches › Closed and merged banks › Florida › Merchants & Southern Bank
What happened to Merchants & Southern Bank?
Merchants & Southern Bank in Gainesville, FL (earlier called Bank of Hawthorne and 2 other names) merged into Ameris Bank of Atlanta, GA on May 22, 2015. Ameris Bank is open today.
The chain, step by step
From the day it opened to the bank at the end of the chain today. Each step is one entry in the FDIC's record.
- 1959Bank of Hawthorne opens in Gainesville, FL
- Nov 5, 1976renamed Lake Area State Bank
- Mar 27, 1985renamed Merchants & Southern Bank of Alachua County
- Mar 26, 1988renamed Merchants & Southern Bank
- May 22, 2015MERGEDMerchants & Southern Bank merged into Ameris Bank of Atlanta, GA.FDIC certificate 18116 ends; its business continues under certificate 20504.
- TodayOPEN
Ameris BankMain office Atlanta, GA · FDIC certificate 20504 · 166 offices in 5 states on June 30, 2026Every Ameris Bank office → Website on file with the FDIC: www.amerisbank.com
If you still have something from Merchants & Southern Bank
A lien that was never released
If a paid-off mortgage, home-equity line or car loan still shows Merchants & Southern Bank as lienholder, start with Ameris Bank. In a merger the surviving bank takes over the other bank's loans, so it is the bank to ask for a recordable lien release; if the loan was sold along the way, it can tell you to whom.
The FDIC says it cannot process lien releases for banks that merged or were acquired without government assistance, which is what the record shows here.
Record the release with the same county office that recorded the original mortgage or deed of trust.
An old account, passbook or CD
Ask Ameris Bank to search for the account under the name Merchants & Southern Bank. A passbook or certificate shows an account existed. It doesn't show the money is still there, and the OCC notes that federal rules require banks to keep most account records for five years.
Accounts nobody touches are eventually turned over to a state. The OCC puts the usual wait at three to five years with no activity, set by each state's law. Search the unclaimed-property program of the state of the owner's last known address on the bank's records, and any other state they lived in. It is free to search and to claim through a state's own site, and MissingMoney.com, an official site of the state administrators' association, searches most states at once.
A safe deposit box
Ask Ameris Bank which branch now holds boxes from the Merchants & Southern Bank office you used. The OCC says a box with no activity for three to five years (the period is set by state statute) is likely treated as dormant, and its contents may be turned over to the state's unclaimed-property program.
Box contents are not covered by FDIC insurance.
Not sure this is your bank?
Many banks shared a name. Match the city and the years above against your paperwork, or search again with the town.
Credit unions were never FDIC-insured and are not in this record; the NCUA credit union lookup covers those. Banks that closed before about 1970 are not in the FDIC's list either.
One caution: banks also sell single branches. If the office you used was sold to a different bank along the way, the account went with the branch, not with this chain. The office list below shows which bank each office reports under now.
This page is drawn from FDIC records and federal guidance. It is not legal advice, and BankBranches is not a bank or a government office. More detail: lien releases · old passbooks and CDs · safe deposit boxes · unclaimed money.
Where the guidance comes from ▾
Its offices in the FDIC deposit reports
15 offices filed under this charter in some year from 1994 on. 9 are still open as of June 30, 2026.
| Office | Now |
|---|---|
| 5010 Nw 43rd StGainesville, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 18785 High Springs Main StHigh Springs, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 3361 N Main StGainesville, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 305 N.W. 75th Street, Tower Center Shopping CenterGainesville, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 2601 Se Maricamp RdOcala, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 25501 Ne State Road 26Melrose, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 100 Ne Commercial CirKeystone Heights, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 5400 Sw College RdOcala, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 7000 Sw Archer RdGainesville, FL | OpenAmeris Bank |
| 5100 S.W. 25th BoulevardGainesville, FL | No longer reported |
| 8000 Nw 27th BoulevardGainesville, FL | No longer reported |
| 1 Johnson StreetHawthorne, FL | No longer reported |
| 412 Northeast Tenth StreetOcala, FL | No longer reported |
| 1301 East Highway 441Alachua, FL | No longer reported |
| 1301 East Highway 441Alachua, FL | No longer reported |
Banks folded into Merchants & Southern Bank
2 banks merged directly into this charter.
| Bank | Ended |
|---|---|
| Merchants and Southern Bank of Clay CountyKeystone Heights, FL | Sep 23, 1988 |
| Merchants & Southern Bank of OcalaOcala, FL | Mar 26, 1988 |
Source: FDIC BankFind institution and history records, read Nov 15, 2026. The FDIC's list covers banks that ended in about 1970 or later. Look up certificate 18116 in the FDIC BankFind Suite to see the government's own entry. Corrections: me@byclaude.net.