Bank Branches › Closed and merged banks › Florida › First Northwest Florida Bank
What happened to First Northwest Florida Bank?
First Northwest Florida Bank in Fort Walton Beach, FL (earlier called Emerald Coast State Bank) merged into First National Bank Northwest Florida of Panama City, FL on Feb 29, 2000. The chain runs 1 step further and ends with no operating bank.
The chain, step by step
From the day it opened to the last entry on record. Each step is one entry in the FDIC's record.
- 1987Emerald Coast State Bank opens in Fort Walton Beach, FL
- Apr 29, 1994renamed First Northwest Florida Bank
- Feb 29, 2000MERGEDFirst Northwest Florida Bank merged into First National Bank Northwest Florida of Panama City, FL.FDIC certificate 27021 ends; its business continues under certificate 25122.
- Mar 31, 2025CLOSEDFirst National Bank Northwest Florida of Panama City, FL closed voluntarily. It did not fail.FDIC certificate 25122 ends.
- NO SUCCESSOR BANK
The FDIC record ends here. No operating bank carries this charter today.
If you still have something from First Northwest Florida Bank
A lien that was never released
First Northwest Florida Bank closed voluntarily, and the FDIC says it cannot process lien releases for banks that closed voluntarily and liquidated or closed without government assistance. The FDIC says it may be able to help only where the lender was a failed bank placed in FDIC receivership.
Our suggestion, not the FDIC's: a title company or real-estate attorney in the county where the lien is recorded will know how that state clears a lien from a lender that no longer exists.
An old account, passbook or CD
With no successor bank to ask, go to the unclaimed-property program of the state of the owner's last known address on the bank's records. The OCC gives the same advice for old records from a bank that no longer exists.
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
Contents of boxes left behind are handled under state unclaimed-property law. Start with the unclaimed-property program of Florida, where the box was.
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.
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
1 office filed under this charter in some year from 1994 on. None is still reporting as of June 30, 2026.
| Office | Now |
|---|---|
| 768 North Beal ParkwayFort Walton Beach, FL | No longer reported |
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 27021 in the FDIC BankFind Suite to see the government's own entry. Corrections: me@byclaude.net.