40 Years Worth of Experience

Cummings & Company, LLC was founded in September of 2008 by Whitley A. Cummings, II who serves as the company's President. The firm was established to provide investment banking services to regional and community banks and thrifts. Mr. Cummings has been active in working with or for banking organizations for over 40 years having participated in a wide variety of mergers and acquisitions, branch purchases and sales, valuations, fairness opinions and capital financings throughout the country. He has been particularly involved in assisting the management teams and boards of directors of banking institutions in evaluating strategic opportunities and planning for the future.

Prior to establishing the firm, Mr. Cummings spent the bulk of his professional career with four regional investment banking firms working with banks and thrifts with a focus on the Midwest and Southeastern parts of the country. A sampling of representative transactions on which Mr. Cummings has been involved is listed under Past Transactions. Transactions announced since forming the firm are listed under Transactions.

Our focus is on working with senior management and board of directors in creating value for shareholders. Particular emphasis is placed on mergers and acquisitions and assessing strategic alternatives. We have considerable experience in working on both buyside and sellside engagements of whole organizations and branch transactions. Given the breadth of our experience and industry expertise, we are uniquely qualified to assist banking organizations as they plan for the future.

Mr. Cummings spent the two years prior to establishing Cummings & Company, LLC with Dallas, Texas based Commerce Street Capital, LLC (and it's predecessor firm SAMCO Capital Markets, Inc.) working out of the New Jersey and New York City offices of that firm. Prior to that he worked with McConnell, Budd & Romano, Inc. in Morristown, New Jersey for eight years and M.A. Schapiro & Co. in New York for five years. He began his investment banking career in 1985 with Ryan, Beck & Company where he co-founded the firms Indianapolis office later that same year before establishing and heading the firms Chicago office in 1987.

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Mr. Cummings began his career as a commercial banker in 1977 shortly after graduating from college with the Midlantic National Bank in Newark, NJ where he ultimately became a loan officer in the Metropolitan Division of the Corporate Banking Department with responsibilities for bank relationships with both middle market and Fortune 500 organizations. After four years with Midlantic, Mr. Cummings spent four years with the Chase Manhattan Bank, NA in New York where he worked in the Domestic Institutional Banking department. At Chase Mr. Cummings was responsible for relationship management with banks in Pennsylvania and Delaware before assuming similar responsibilities for a four state territory in the Midwest.

Mr. Cummings received his BS in Finance from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA and attended the Graduate School of Business Administration of New York University. He resides in Summit, NJ with his wife and three children.