Deposits at Orange County commercial banks continued to grow deposits at about the same pace as a year earlier, while savings and loans here saw a slowdown.
The 35 largest commercial banks operating in Orange County combined for a 2.5% growth in local deposits for a total of $68.3 billion as of June, according to this week’s Business Journal list. The list ranks commercial banks by the amount of deposits they held in their Orange County branches as of June 30, using data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
National banks dominate the list, with the top five banks accounting for about 69% of the total deposits. The 10 biggest banks hold about 83% of deposits.
Thirteen banks on the list saw their Orange County deposits decline, while 22 saw increases.
The 35 banks shaved off about 1% of the local work force over the past year.
Fifteen banks added employees here, eight cut workers, and seven reported flat numbers. Figures for five banks were based on Business Journal estimates.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. kept the No. 1 spot on the list with a 1.7% uptick in OC deposits to $16.5 billion from $16.2 billion, making up about 24% of the total. No. 2 San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank saw its OC deposits slide by 2.3% to $15.4 billion.
The Wells decline follows a 6.6% increase a year earlier, when the bank’s local deposit total was $420 million short of Bank of America’s. The spread is now $1 billion.
Wells Fargo has 4,420 employees here, down by 3.9% from a year earlier. It added a branch for a total of 107. The bank has the most locations in Orange County.
Deposits Up
New York-based Chase Bank stayed at No. 3 with $6.7 billion in local deposits, up 7.5% from a year ago. The increase of roughly $473 million was the largest growth among the banks listed.
Chase has hired 300 more employees over the past year—the biggest increase on the list—for a total of 2,700 OC workers in 78 branches.
No. 4 San Francisco-based Union Bank had about $4.6 billion in deposits, up 4%, across the 43 locations here. The subsidiary of Japan-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. cut its employee count by 200 people and now has 1,390 workers. The job cuts followed a 16.5% jump in hiring a year earlier.
No. 6 Citibank topped $3.1 billion in local deposits, down 1.8% from a year earlier.
The New York-based bank has been focusing on small-business lending the past couple of years.
“We’ve made a three-year commitment (starting September 2011) to originate $24 billion in Small Business Administration lending,” said CeCe Stewart, president of Citibank’s U.S. consumer and commercial banking. “Last year we lent $7.9 billion, surpassing our goal of $7 billion.”
The goal for 2012 is $8 billion.
Citibank has recently opened a location in Irvine.
“We are having another grand opening next week in Long Beach,” said Rebecca Macieira-Kaufmann, president of Citibank California. “We’re continuing to invest in Southern California. We’re planning to open more in the next three years. We’ve been hiring and growing bankers, wealth managers and advisors.”
Long Beach-based Farmers & Merchants Bank was No. 9, up one spot, with a 4.4% gain in OC deposits. It has $1.4 billion here and 300 employees, down 13 from a year earlier.
“The industry as a whole has been growing in deposits with the flight to safety and consolidation of banks,” Chief Executive Henry Walker said. “People are still seeking relationship and safety, and Farmers & Merchants has that brand in the OC marketplace.”
The entire franchise of Farmers & Merchants had a 13% increase in deposits in the same time period, for a total of about $3.4 billion.
No. 24 First Security Business Bank—owned by First American Financial Corp. of Santa Ana—saw local deposits jump 49.8% to $419.7 million, marking the largest percentage increase among the banks on the list. It cut its employees by about half during the past year, down to seven.
No. 25 Premier Commercial Bank in Anaheim saw local deposits grow to nearly $400 million, a 32% jump. Premier Commer-cial was acquired by Los Angeles-based Cal-ifornia United Bank last year for $38 million, and the changes are expected to be completed in the summer. Premier Commercial’s two locations in Anaheim and Irvine are expected to change into California United.
Premier Commercial has 63 employees here, up from 59.
Seven newcomers made it to the list as their local deposits grew, most of them by double digits.
San Francisco-based First Republic Bank debuted as No. 19, with local deposits totaling $481 million, up 46.5% from a year earlier. First Republic has two branches here, Newport Beach and Corona del Mar.
First Republic was acquired by Bank of America as part of the Merrill Lynch & Co. acquisition in 2009. It became independent in July 2010, when it was sold to a consortium of investors. The bank has 34 employees in Orange County.
Los Angeles-based Manufacturers Bank made No. 31, after seeing deposits at its Newport Beach branch grow 21.4% to $228.5 million.
Nara Bank of Los Angeles was No. 32. Deposits at its three OC locations totaled $225.5 million, up 10% from a year ago.
The parent company of Nara Bank, Nara Bancorp Inc., and Los Angeles-based Center Financial Corp. completed a merger in November. The consolidation, which is not reflected in this week’s list, created BBCN Bancorp Inc., the largest Korean-American bank in the U.S. with about $5.3 billion in assets and $4.4 billion in deposits.
Center Bank had $176 million in Orange County deposits across its three branches here last year. The total would bring BBCN’s OC deposits to $401.5 million.
Irvine-based Opus Bank and First Pactrust Bancorp Inc. of Chula Vista are not shown on the list; they were not in OC during the snapshot of local deposits in June.
Opus Bank moved its headquarters to Irvine in October, becoming the largest bank based here with about $2.2 billion in assets.
No OC deposit figures were found from the June report. Opus now has 10 OC locations in cities including Fullerton, Irvine and Brea.
HQ Moving
First Pactrust also has plans to move its headquarters to Irvine in the first quarter. The bank has been focused on acquiring community banks that are below $500 million in assets.
Last year the bank bought Manhattan Beach-based Beach Business Bank for $37 million and Gateway Business Bank in Cerritos for $17 million. The two deals are expected to boost the assets of First Pactrust’s subsidiary, Pacific Trust Bank, to $1.3 billion, placing the bank among the largest banks in OC once the relocation is complete.
The county’s nine largest savings and loans together saw a 9.1% growth in local deposits for a total of $4.2 billion. The same group of institutions saw a 46.5% jump in deposit growth a year earlier.
Five savings and loans saw their deposits grow, while four saw declines.
The group continued to hire this past year. The nine combined for a 19% increase in OC employees, for a total of 835, after growing its work force by about 13% a year earlier.
The rankings stayed the same as a year earlier, except for a switch of two institutions.
Pasadena-based OneWest Bank FSB again held the No. 1 spot, with $1.6 billion in local deposits as of June, slightly up from the same point a year earlier. OneWest had $26.4 billion in assets and saw $176.3 million in profit in the first six months of 2011, down 71% from the same period a year earlier.
No. 3 Fullerton Community Bank makes its last appearance on the list after being acquired by Opus Bank last year. Fullerton Community had $488.7 million in deposits here, a 7% decline from a year earlier.
No. 4 First Foundation Bank moved up a spot as it topped $323 million in deposits at its Irvine location, a 22% increase. It added 17 employees over the past year to 56.
First Foundation saw net income of $6.3 million in the first half of 2011, more than five times the profit it saw a year earlier.
No. 7 West Covina-based Universal Bank saw a 65% decline in deposits at its Orange location to $28 million. Profit for the bank surged nearly tenfold to $1.6 million for the first six months of 2011.
Universal Bank was recently acquired by Riverside-based Security Bank of California and opened under the new name starting earlier this month. Security Bank had assets of $413 million at the end of 2011.
