Provident Bancorp, Inc. (PVBC)

Provident Bancorp, Inc. was the holding company for The Provident Bank, a Massachusetts-chartered bank headquartered in Amesbury, Massachusetts, whose roots date to 1828. The bank served individuals and small and mid-sized businesses on the North Shore of Massachusetts and in southern New Hampshire. Provident Bancorp completed a second-step conversion in 2019 and its common stock traded on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol PVBC.

Provident accepted deposits through checking, savings, money market, and certificate of deposit accounts. Its lending included commercial real estate, multi-family, commercial business, construction and land development, mortgage warehouse, one- to four-family residential, and home equity loans. The bank operated branches in Amesbury and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire, with loan production offices in Boston and elsewhere.

The company's strategy in the early 2020s included expanding commercial lending and developing a banking-as-a-service approach to deposit gathering that included relationships with digital asset firms. Provident later reduced that activity amid regulatory attention and changed its business focus and management. It then concentrated on its core commercial and community banking franchise in its New England markets.

The acquirer was NB Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Needham Bank, which is based in Needham, Massachusetts, and whose stock trades on Nasdaq as NBBK. NB Bancorp announced an agreement to acquire Provident in 2025, in a transaction in which Provident shareholders would receive NB Bancorp common stock. Provident's shareholders voted on the merger at a special meeting, for which a definitive proxy statement was filed with the SEC.

The two companies announced the closing of the merger in November 2025. Provident merged into NB Bancorp, and The Provident Bank was combined with Needham Bank, adding Provident's branches and customer base on the North Shore and in New Hampshire to the NB Bancorp franchise. Nasdaq filed a Form 25 with the SEC on November 14, 2025 to remove PVBC from listing and registration.

Provident shareholders became holders of NBBK stock under the merger's exchange terms. PVBC no longer trades, and the successor public company is NB Bancorp, Inc.

Bank mergers of this kind require approvals from federal and state banking regulators, including the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks, in addition to shareholder votes. The combined company took on a larger footprint across eastern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. Nasdaq-listed community banks have frequently been consolidated in recent years as acquirers seek scale, and this transaction followed that pattern.