Watford City, North Dakota-based First International Bank & Trust will buy Dallas-based Dominion Bank, creating a $7 billion-asset institution with 31 locations.

The deal will bring First International into Texas with three branches, including two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The purchase price was not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027.

Discussions began in the spring, said First International CEO Peter Stenehjem. Executives at the banks had known each other for several years.

“We're purchasing a proven bank in Dominion,” Stenehjem said in an interview Tuesday. “Some of [the bankers] have been in the business for 40 years,” and the existing team “has proven relationships, a proven track record, and what we felt were a lot of similar values to us. Hopefully, we can just continue to add on to those values [with] additional capabilities from a lending perspective and treasury management capabilities.”

Texas is new territory for First International, which has a presence in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Arizona. But there are similarities between the Lone Star State and First International’s home state, including prominent oil and ranching sectors, Stenehjem said.

Dominion has about $650 million in assets. First International wasn’t actively looking for an acquisition target, and “we continue to see phenomenal growth from our existing footprint,” Stenehjem said. But “we were open to conversations for the right fit.”

“What mattered to us was, would Dominion be a great cultural fit? Would we be able to enhance their abilities? Would we have the ability to retain their leadership team and, frankly, all of their team members?” he said. “That was a big piece for us.”

The answer to those questions, he said, was “yes,” and the market First International would enter sealed the deal.

“Obviously, the Dallas-Fort Worth area [is] a phenomenal market. They have wage growth. They have population growth. Just look at the number of middle market-type companies [there] that we really feel that we can help serve,” he said.

As to North Texas’ attractiveness to buyers, Canadian lender Scotiabank and Oklahoma City-based MidFirst have each proposed buying Dallas-centered commercial banks

First International expects to offer positions to all Dominion employees when the deal is complete. Dominion CEO and Chair Thomas Mastor will join First International as executive vice president and Texas market president, and will join the company’s board of directors.

“FIBT’s history, family ownership and long-term approach stood out to us,” Mastor said in a prepared statement. “Joining First International Bank & Trust allows us to build on Dominion’s strengths, expand the resources available to our customers and preserve the local expertise, responsiveness, and personal relationships they value.

“By joining FIBT, our bankers will have greater capacity to support customers' ambitions through larger lending opportunities, expanded financial solutions and enhanced capabilities, while maintaining the local relationships and personalized service that define Dominion Bank,” Mastor added. 

Stenehjem’s great-grandfather and other family members, who emigrated from Norway to farm and ranch, started the bank in 1910 based on community need. They pooled together $15,000 to start and have been serving the community ever since, he said.

“We're very much a community bank. I think the FDIC might call us a regional now, but we're very much a relationship institution. More than anything, [we focus on] how can you be trustworthy?” Stenehjem said of the bank’s values over time. “If you think about some of the most precious aspects in your life, it's probably your health and your financial well-being … We pride ourselves on being a trusted confidante, but also somebody that can be there to help.”

It took First International a century to hit $1 billion in assets, and 16 years to make it – with this transaction – to $7 billion, Stenehjem said. But First International will bring the same values into its acquisition of Dominion, he said.

Stenehjem worked at the bank as a teenager and rejoined after college, working in every area except mortgage lending.

He became CEO in 2024, when his father Steve Stenehjem transitioned to the chairman role.

The Dominion deal is the bank’s first transaction with this Stenehjem at the helm.