United Bankshares is coming to Palm Beach. The Charleston, West Virginia-based lender announced plans to open its first Florida office at 218 Royal Palm Way on Palm Beach Island, marking a de novo entry into a state it has never operated in before, pending regulatory approval.
The announcement, made in a Business Wire release Thursday, frames the move as United Bankshares' inaugural entry into the Florida banking market, according to gurufocus.com. The Nasdaq-listed company, which trades under the ticker UBSI, says the new office is intended to serve individuals, families, business owners and commercial clients across Palm Beach and South Florida, offering commercial banking, private banking, wealth management, treasury management and lending services once approved. The Florida operation is expected to operate under the DBA United Bankshares.
A Leadership Team With Decades on the Island
Terence Callahan, who has been a United Bankshares leader for more than a decade, has been named market president for the Palm Beach market. He will oversee the company's growth strategy and business development efforts in Florida and lead efforts to establish and expand its presence across Palm Beach and South Florida.
The bank has also brought on a wealth-management leadership team with local relationships and decades of experience in Palm Beach, the release states. Chris Battifarano, who has nearly 30 years of experience in the market and previously served as chief investment officer at FineMark Bank & Trust for a decade, will serve as chief investment officer for the new operation. He is joined by senior investment strategist Najam (Naj) Qasim, senior investment analyst Michael Christenson, and senior compliance manager Jessica Dellinger — a team the release says has served Palm Beach-area clients for decades.
“Palm Beach is a unique market, and we are bringing together an experienced team with deep local roots and a shared commitment to putting clients first,” Battifarano said, according to the Business Wire announcement. United Bankshares CEO Richard M. Adams, Jr. said the company's future geographic expansion focuses on the Southeast, adding that Palm Beach is a premier center for business, wealth creation and entrepreneurship.
By the Numbers: A $32-34 Billion Regional Player
United Bankshares describes itself on its own investor relations site as a nearly $32 billion regional financial services company with close to 240 full-service banking offices and 22 loan origination offices, operating primarily through its United Bank subsidiary. The Business Wire release accompanying Thursday's announcement instead puts the company's consolidated assets at approximately $34 billion as of June 30, with the two figures reflecting different reporting dates. Until now, United Bank's offices have been concentrated in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, plus Washington, D.C. — a footprint the company says it is now diversifying beyond its traditional Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern markets, per gurufocus.com.
Royal Palm Way Is Getting Crowded
United Bankshares is hardly the first out-of-town lender to stake a claim on the stretch of Palm Beach known as Bankers Row. Flagstar Bank opened a Private Client Office at 230 Royal Palm Way, just down the street, in August 2025, designed for high-net-worth individuals, business owners and family offices, according to a release carried by prnewswire.com. Citizens Private Bank, meanwhile, has an office at 400 Royal Palm Way.
The push to turn the island into a financial powerhouse isn't new. Palm Beach County has spent roughly a decade pursuing what local boosters call the “Wall Street South” push, a coordinated effort to establish the Palm Beaches as a national finance hub, according to CBS12. That effort scored a marquee win in January when Wells Fargo announced it was relocating its wealth management headquarters to a 50,000-square-foot lease in West Palm Beach's One Flagler building, the station reported.
Why Banks Keep Chasing South Florida
The migration of money into the region helps explain the rush. Deposits across the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metro area grew more than 20% between mid-2020 and mid-2025, reaching $336.3 billion, according to American Banker. Florida also gained more than $20 billion in net adjusted gross income from interstate migration between 2022 and 2023, per IRS data cited by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
That growth is showing up in bank branch counts, too. The national branch network posted a net gain for the third straight quarter in the second quarter of 2026, with 261 openings against 248 closings, the NCRC reported, and the Southeast was the clear driver of that national total — with Florida and Texas accounting for roughly half of the combined gain across the Southeast and Southwest. Nationally, the growth is coming from brick-and-mortar branches rather than in-store locations, the same report notes.
United Bankshares joins a long line of out-of-state institutions making similar bets. WesBanco hired three veteran Florida commercial bankers to spearhead its own South Florida push, naming Eddy Rodriguez as Florida regional president over market presidents Steven Goldstein in Palm Beach County and Tony Mandravellos in Broward, American Banker reported. Huntington Bancshares opened a commercial lending hub in Fort Lauderdale in May 2025, while Valley National Bancorp is seeking to triple its South Florida business banking team, according to the same outlet. Banesco USA recruited a four-person commercial banking team from Amerant Bancorp for its Broward expansion, and United Community Banks entered the region through two Miami-area acquisitions starting in 2023, per a separate American Banker report.
