The 26 largest commercial banks based in Orange County grew assets by 26% for the 12 months through June, for a total of $10.6 billion, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
More than half of the banks—14—grew their assets while 12 saw declines.
More banks were profitable over the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2010, with 21 showing net income and five reporting losses. Last year’s list showed 13 banks with profits and 13 with losses for the same period.
The banks combined for $12.6 million in net income for the first two quarters, compared with a loss of $2.3 million a year earlier.
Irvine-based Opus Bank drove much of the total growth of assets, primarily through acquisitions. It took the No. 1 spot on the list after ranking 12th last year.
Opus Bank’s increase came on two acquisitions, including deals for Fullerton-based RMG Capital Corp. and its subsidiary Fullerton Community Bank, and Everett, Wash.-based Cascade Financial Corp. and its Cascade Bank. The acquisitions boosted Opus Bank’s assets nearly eightfold, to about $2.2 billion.
Without Opus Bank, the other banks on the list combined for a 3.6% growth in assets, to about $8.5 billion.
Opus Bank posted a $20.5 million loss for the first six months of the year, owing in part to recent acquisitions.
The rest of the banks on the list combined for $33.1 million in profit for the period.
Lots of Hires
Banks here hired 470 people this year, driving the total OC workforce up 42% to 1,597. Opus Bank accounted for about half of the net gain, adding about 200 employees.
Core capital ratios for the 26 banks ranged from around 5% to more than 35%, with an average of 12.8%.
The ratio measures the percentage of a bank’s capital to its assets. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. requires a bank to maintain a level of core capital in line with its potential risks.
Last year, banks based here averaged a core capital ratio of about 11%.
No. 2 Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercan-tile Bank saw assets drop 14% to $986.6 million from $1.1 billion.
The bank saw net income of $3.5 million in the first two quarters, reversing a loss of more than $10 million during the same period a year earlier.
In September, Pacific Mercantile completed a stock sale that raised $11.2 million, enough to satisfy a capital requirement from the California Department of Financial Institu-tions.
The order to increase capital came in August 2010. Regulators required the bank to boost shareholder’s equity to 9% of assets.
The bank now employs 254 people after adding more than 89 employees over the year, the second-biggest gain on the list. The increase was primarily for Pa-cific Mercantile’s mortgage division, which is now profitable, according to Executive Vice Pre-sident Barbara Palermo.
No. 9 Irvine-based California First Na-tional Bank tripled its employee count, going from 37 to 125 people over the year.
The bank grew its assets by 28.5% to $381 million.
No. 11 Plaza Bank in Irvine jumped nine spots on the list as its assets climbed 66%, to $322.3 million.
The bank acquired the sole branch of SouthwestUSA Bank in Las Vegas after it was closed by federal regulators in July 2010. The deal boosted Plaza Bank’s assets by $137 million.
It has 40 employees in OC, unchanged from a year earlier.
No. 16 Orange Community Bank in Orange makes its final appearance on the list. It was acquired by Los Angeles-based Grandpoint Capital Inc. in a deal that closed in August.
As of June, Orange Community had about $233.9 million in assets, up 6% from a year earlier. For the first two quarters of this year, the bank was profitable with net income of $764,000, a turnaround from a loss of $673,000 a year earlier.
Former Orange Community Chief Execu-tive Larry Sallinger stayed with Grandpoint Bank as executive vice president and vice chairman of its board.
Pacific Enterprise Bank in Irvine moved up four spots to No. 17 on this year’s list.
Its assets increased by about 48% to $233.7 million in the 12 months through June.
Most of Pacific Enterprise’s loan portfolio is made up of Small Business Administration loans.
“It’s been a challenge to keep up with all of our loan requests,” said Richard Ganulin, chief executive. “SBA 504 loan is the big area.”
