Grasshopper Bank to Acquire Auto Club Trust

Grasshopper Bank plans to acquire Auto Club Trust, a subsidiary of The Auto Club Group (ACG), saying it will become the exclusive bank powering depository and certain lending offerings to AAA members in ACG’s 14-state territory when the transaction is finalized.

This is the plan behind a definitive merger agreement between the parent company of Grasshopper Bank, Grasshopper Bancorp, and Auto Club Trust that was unanimously approved by each company’s board of directors, the companies said in a Wednesday (Oct. 9) press release.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2025, according to the release.

“We look forward to adding Grasshopper Bank’s award-winning digital banking experience to Auto Club Trust’s existing marketing strategy while expanding the consumer and business products provided to this community over time,” Grasshopper and Grasshopper Bank Chairman and CEO Michael Butler said in the release.

Auto Club Trust is a federally chartered savings bank with total assets of about $495 million, according to the release. Its parent company, ACG, is the second-largest AAA club in North America.

The planned transaction will bring together the bank’s capabilities and Grasshopper Bank’s digital platform, per the release. Grasshopper Bank will continue to serve its current client segments as well.

“This merger will allow ACG to continue offering banking products to our members while leveraging Grasshopper’s capabilities and resources to grow the reach of our financial services,” The Auto Club Group President and CEO Joseph J. Richardson said in the release.

Grasshopper Bank has invested in the technology that provides security around money mobility and the team members who have customer-centric values matching those of the organization’s leadership, Christopher Mastrangelo, chief compliance officer at Grasshopper Bank, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in July 2022.

“I think we have really built strong client relationships through those two means,” Mastrangelo said.

In March, Pocketbook selected Grasshopper to provide its small- to medium-sized business (SMB) customers with white-labeled, FDIC-insured commercial checking accounts. This collaboration adds secure commercial checking accounts to the payments, banking and business tools provided by Pocketbook’s embedded financial solution.