Jeffrey K. Ball has banking in his blood. Now the 20-year banker is starting a business bank from scratch just over the county line in Whittier.
The startup, Friendly Hills Bank, has its sights on North County, along with Whittier and Santa Fe Springs. The hope is to lure businesses from Brea, Buena Park, La Habra and Fullerton and other border cities, Ball said.
Ball’s banking roots run deep. His grandfather, Kenneth Ball, was one of the founders of National Bank of Whittier in 1964. He’s the great-grandson of M.C. Lautrup, who owned Whittier Sanitary Dairy in the early 1900s.
Kenneth Ball and John L. Ball,Jeffery Ball’s dad,were directors for SC Bancorp’s Southern California Bank in Anaheim. SC Bancorp came about with the combination of Bank of Downey and National Bank of Whittier.
By late 1997, Anaheim-based SC Bancorp was sold to Western Bancorp of Laguna Niguel.
Jeffery Ball said his aim is to build Friendly Hills Bank and keep it independent.
“We are not looking for a sellout,” he said. “We intend to be part of the community and have a longtime, sustainable value.”
By summer, Friendly Hills Bank hopes to open its first branch on Whittier Boulevard, a couple of blocks from the La Habra city line.
Ball has held senior banking posts with several banks in the past 20 years, including most recently as executive vice president in charge of corporate banking at Irvine’s Far East National Bank, part of Bank SinoPac of Taiwan.
He’s held corporate and securities banking jobs with Bank of America Corp., Eldorado Bank in Tustin and Southern California Bank in Downey.
Friendly Hills Bank started selling 1.2 million to 1.5 million shares in early February. The bank aims to raise $12 million and $15 million by March 31.
About a quarter of the money has been raised, Ball said.
Ball has hired Edward J. Carpenter, banking consultant with Irvine-based Carpenter & Co., to help organize and raise money for the bank. Carpenter’s had his hand in just about all local bank startups of late.
Friendly Hills Bank is one of a handful of business banks to open in the past year or so, after a big rush in the early part of the decade.
The Bank of Whittier, a small, privately held bank that will compete against Friendly Hills Bank, is the only other Whittier-based bank that can claim being homegrown. It was formed in 1982.
“I know very little about them,” said Yahia Abdul-Rahman, chairman and chief executive of Bank of Whittier, which has about $31 million in assets.
Friendly Hills Bank faces bigger competition from Banco Popular North America, part of Puerto Rico’s Popular Inc., which bought Whittier-based Quaker City Bank in 2004.
