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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Bank of Southern Calif. Buys AmericanWest’s Palm Desert Office

Banks and credit unions are constantly checking on their branches to make sure those expensive brick-and-mortar sites are paying off. And if they aren’t, they’re usually put up for sale.

That’s what occurred recently when AmericanWest Bank sold an office in Palm Desert to San Diego-based Bank of Southern California last month.

Spokane, Wash.-based AmericanWest acquired the branch in 2011 as part of its $18.5 million acquisition of Sunrise Bank, which had four branches. AmericanWest — which also bought eight branches late last year from First PacTrust Bancorp, formerly based in Chula Vista — gave the Palm Desert branch about three years before it decided the office wasn’t measuring up.

“Although these markets provide value to the bank, AmericanWest’s management and board of directors came to the difficult conclusion that remaining in these markets was not the best use of our resources,” CEO Scott Kisting said in a letter to his customers in October, when the sale was arranged.

Neither buyer nor seller revealed the size of the branch or what the selling price was, but it wasn’t much. The Bank of Southern California, formerly called First Business Bank, has about $200 million in total assets at its six branches.

Nathan Rogge, BSC’s CEO, said the bank merged its Palm Springs office into the newly acquired branch and retained all employees.

Of course, the bigger the bank, the more closings and openings. Bank of America Corp., with about $2.1 trillion in assets, closed 203 branches nationwide from its vast network of about 5,200 offices, according to a report from SNL Financial. After subtracting the 14 offices BofA (NYSE: BAC) opened, its net closures totaled 189 offices.

The next largest number of net closures came from PNC Financial Services Group, with a net of 160 offices; SunTrust Bank was in third with a net of 123 offices closed.

As for the largest net gainer of branches last year, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) led the pack with a net gain of 34 branches. Those additions brought its total nationwide to about 5,700, including 98 in San Diego County.

In California last year, a net of 65 branches were closed. The state with the most number of net closures last year was Florida, with a net loss of 319, SNL Financial said.

• • •

Largest San Diego lender gets bigger: San Diego County Credit Union fortified its claim as the area’s “largest locally owned financial institution” last year when it expanded its assets by about $500 million to $6.3 billion.

San Diego-based California Bank & Trust, with about $11 billion in assets and a subsidiary of Utah-based Zions Bancorporation, is the largest locally based commercial bank.

For the 2013 year, SDCCU’s net profit increased 8.7 percent to $90 million, it reported. Total loans grew 5 percent to $3.35 billion, and deposits increased 10 percent to $5.45 billion.

Perhaps more significantly, the credit union’s membership rose by about 15,700 to 258,024 by year-end.

SDCCU’s net worth, or equity, stood at 12.76 percent, up from 12.34 percent at the end of 2012. The delinquency ratio was only 0.73 percent, down from 1.49 percent in 2013.

CEO Teresa Halleck attributed the growth to competitive products and services, and continued focus on member services.

“These positive results coincide with the improved property values of Southern California coupled with increased auto sales,” Halleck said.

In other news, SDCCU opened its 32nd branch in the Sports Arena-Midway district within the Target-anchored shopping center at 3455 Sports Arena Blvd.

• • •

New SBA Administrator nominated: President Barack Obama nominated Maria Contreras-Sweet to head the Small Business Administration; she could become the second member of his cabinet who is Latino. Contreras-Sweet immigrated to this country when she was a child, and her mother worked in a chicken packing plant in El Monte, according to an article in the Washington Post. She served as California’s secretary of business, transportation and housing from 1999 to 2003, and she helped organize and was chairman of ProAmerica Bank, a Los Angeles commercial bank targeting Latinos with about $123 million in assets.

Kurt Chilcott, chief executive of CDC Small Business Finance Corp., said the nominee is well-matched to the position and brings a great deal of relevant experience to the job.

• • •

Chase invests in SDSU: JPMorgan Chase said it will invest $1 million to fund higher education programs for U.S. military veterans at four universities including San Diego State University. The other colleges were in Florida and Texas.

The grants will help the colleges build programs aimed at veterans, including orientation and bridge programs, student services and enhancing classroom experiences with the goal of increasing retention and graduation rates, Chase said.

Chase was one of 10 corporations in 2011 that formed the 100,000 Jobs Mission, pledging to hire that number of vets by 2020. Since then, some 120 companies have joined the mission and have hired about 117,000 veterans. So the bar was set higher — to 200,000 vets hired by 2020.

Send news about locally based financial institutions to Mike Allen via email at mallen@sdbj.com. He can be reached at 858-277-6359.

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