The Orange County banking landscape is continuing to change as the hard-charging economy creates opportunities. Several independent banks have started up in the past year, and now some larger institutions are coming in to get a piece of the pie.
“That marketplace is underbanked and it is a growing area,” said John Doyle, a first senior vice president for Sanwa Bank California, which opened an office in Irvine in February and will be opening two more offices, one in Foothill Ranch in September and another in South County later this year.
Bank officials said Sanwa will be looking to open more branches in the county in the next few years to take advantage of the consolidation in the banking industry.
“If we can find suitable locations, we will pursue them,” Doyle said.
The Los Angeles-based bank has 17 branches in Orange County and 107 branches in total throughout the state. Its assets grew 6% last year to $9.2 billion and it had a 14% growth in earnings to $118.5 million. Sanwa Bank California is the most profitable unit of Tokyo-based Sanwa Bank Ltd., according to the company.
Meanwhile, San Francisco-based First Republic Bank is breaking into OC, opening a branch office in Corona del Mar.
“We are excited about bringing First Republic to Orange County,” said Blair Minnis, manager of the new branch. “Orange County is one of the areas we have not reached.”
The bank has offices throughout California, but until now it has not touched OC.
“We always planned to do it,” said Katherine August-deWilde, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the bank. She said the bank had not entered OC before because it was not able to find the right personnel.
“It depends on the talent. We were able to acquire some talented anchors,” she said. Minnis was previously the branch manager at Bank of America’s Westcliff Plaza branch in Newport Beach.
“We have found an opportunity to acquire the best private bankers in the country,” August-deWilde said.
First Republic is a Nevada chartered financial institution with headquarters in San Francisco, where the majority of its offices are. Other offices include three in Las Vegas and one in New York. The Corona del Mar office is its first in Orange County and its eighth in Southern California.
