[stock_market_widget type=”card” template=”basic2″ assets=”FCCO” realtime=”true” api=”yahoo-finance”]
A community bank in the Midlands of South Carolina is doing something many companies put off until it becomes urgent: it is naming its next generation of leaders years in advance, while its business is still growing. First Community Corporation (NASDAQ: FCCO), the holding company for First Community Bank, announced that it is combining a leadership transition with its second quarter results and an increased dividend, three pieces of news that normally arrive separately.
The bank’s longtime CEO and President, J. Ted Nissen, will retire the end of December, closing out thirty-one years at First Community and more than four decades in banking overall. Citing personal health reasons, he is leaving a bit earlier than originally planned, though he will stay on as a consultant through the end of 2027 to help with the handoff. Starting January 1, 2027, his role will be split in two. Vaughan R. Dozier, an eighteen year veteran of the bank, becomes Chief Executive Officer, while Joseph “Drew” Painter, with twenty-three years at the company, becomes President. Both will also join the boards of the bank and its holding company. Mike Crapps will remain CEO and President of the parent corporation, First Community Corporation, focusing on governance, strategy and capital management.
On the financial side, the bank had a strong quarter. Net income for the three months ended June 30, 2026 came in at $7.595 million, up 46.5% from a year earlier, with diluted earnings of $0.80 per common share. Total deposits stood at $2.025 billion and total loans reached $1.578 billion, both reflecting continued organic growth on top of the Signature Bank of Georgia acquisition that closed in January 2026. Net interest margin expanded for a ninth straight quarter, reaching 3.51%, while non performing assets remained minimal at just 0.04% of total assets.
The board also approved a higher quarterly cash dividend of $0.17 per common share, payable August 18th, marking the 98th consecutive quarter the company has paid a dividend to shareholders. Alongside that, the company authorized a stock buyback program of up to $7.5 million, running through May 2027, though no shares had been repurchased under the plan as of the end of the quarter.
First Community Bank operates around 22 offices spanning the Midlands, Upstate, Aiken and Piedmont regions of South Carolina, along with a presence in the Augusta, Georgia area. Its business extends beyond traditional deposits and loans into residential mortgage lending and financial planning and investment advisory services, the latter of which saw assets under management grow to $1.378 billion by quarter end, up from just over $1 billion a year earlier.
What makes this announcement notable is not any single figure but the pairing of solid quarterly performance with a multi year succession plan that board chairman Jimmy Chao described as having begun back in 2023. Rather than scrambling to fill a gap, the company is promoting two internal executives who already know its culture, while its outgoing leader stays involved as an advisor. For a bank that has paid dividends every quarter for close to a quarter century, that kind of continuity, paired with rising earnings and expanding margins, tends to matter more to shareholders than any one quarter’s numbers on their own.
