Former Republic Bank To Close Its Doors In Ocean City

OCEAN CITY, NJ — Fulton Bank, which acquired the assets of Republic First Bank when it was shut down earlier this year, will be closing its Ocean City branch, Patch has confirmed.

The former Republic Bank located at 201 East 9th St. will close on Sept. 16, a Fulton Bank spokesperson told Patch.

"While it’s never easy to close one of our financial centers, it’s sometimes necessary after we evaluate factors including overlapping service areas and trends in how customers conduct their banking," the spokesperson said. "Consolidations like these enable us to operate more efficiently and invest in new financial services, while maintaining a network of financial centers where we meet with customers, listen and understand their needs, and recommend the best financial solutions for them."

Additional Philadelphia-area branches are set to be closed this fall as well, including a nearby location in Northfield. Read more: Bank To Close 16 Of Its Philly-Area Branches

The move will consolidate Fulton's operations now that the company has picked up Republic Bank's former branches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Federal regulators seized and shut down Republic Bank in April after the struggling bank failed. Fulton acquired Republic Bank's assets, picking up the shuttered bank's branches and customers.

Republic Bank had 32 locations — more than half of which were in South Jersey. Some of the locations became redundant under the merger. Fulton is in the process of alerting customers about the closures, a spokesperson said.

This article contains additional reporting by Patch's Josh Bakan.