The 1950s and 1960s were decades of planned expansion into community banking. Beginning in 1952 with the purchase of The Gaston Banking Company of Gaston, Indiana, over the next 15 years, seven more Indiana community banks were purchased. The goal of the founding partners was to bring about change in the banking laws that would permit multiple bank ownership and allow them to bring centralized control to the community banks. Hindered by current Indiana banking laws, the group formed the Northern Indiana Financial Service Corporation (NIFSCO) in 1966. NIFSCO was the beginning of the data processing company that later became STAR Financial Systems, which later merged into the bank charter we have today. 

In the 1970s, Tom Marcuccilli's sons, Jim and Tom, joined NIFSCO to help the company further develop its core financial services. At the same time Bob Wright's son, Tom, joined the Bank of Henry County in Shirley, Indiana, to begin his banking career. During this period, bank management began to merge their charters and relocate home offices in county seats where bigger markets offered more growth potential. They did not, however, abandon their commitment to the communities and the local businesses they served. In April of 1985 - four years after the last founding father Tom Marcuccilli, died - the Indiana General Assembly passed the Indiana Banking Structure Reform Act, which permitted bank holding companies to own and control more than one bank in the state. With the passage of this act, the founding fathers' dream became a reality and a STAR was born.