Commercial customers of Mercantile Bank will have access to investment banking services through a newly announced partnership between Stephens Inc. and Mercantile's parent company, The South Financial Group.

Investment banking services provided by Stephens include mergers and acquisitions, private placements and public offerings, according to a release from South Financial.

Since 2002, Little Rock, Ark.-based Stephens has acted as financial advisor on more than 102 merger and acquisition deals with aggregate transaction value greater than $101 billion, the release said.

The deal between South Financial and Stephens calls for Stephens to offer investment banking services at both Mercantile and at Carolina First Bank, also a subsidiary of Greenville, S.C.-based South Financial (NASDAQ: TSFG).

Both South Financial and Stephens serve middle market companies in the Southeast and have a history of helping customers achieve their goals, said Mack Whittle Jr., chairman, president and CEO of South Financial.

Mercantile Bank, based in Orlando, has $457 million in local deposits and 10 offices in the Jacksonville market, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

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