STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Cadence Bank will lay off 17 workers at its operations center in Starkville.

Bank President Mark Abernathy tells the Starkville Daily News (http://bit.ly/NjEbpd) that the layoffs will occur at the end of September.

Abernathy says the Starkville operations will be consolidated with the center in Birmingham, Ala. center. He says the exact date is not firm.

Abernathy says the bank will try to find jobs for those laid off in addition to providing severance packages.

Abernathy says the consolidation will create about 17 new jobs in Birmingham. He says the laid off workers can apply for those jobs.

Cadence Bank, which was acquired by Community Bancorp LLC of Houston, Texas, in 2011, has branches in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Florida.