They built up a trust department and engaged in wealth management. They had to offer different products and services. In order to compete with other regional players they had to be more aggressive in attracting deposits and borrowers as they entered new territories. Also the bank’s culture had changed with its size. It seemed that SBBT went from the conservative local bank to a forward-looking and expanding regional bank. Now it has 48 branches and has assets of $7.369 billion. Much of their expansion was through acquisitions made from 1997 to 2005. They expanded south into Ventura and even Northern Los Angeles counties, and northward into San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties. At that time, as now, the population on what is called the South Coast, the coastal towns including Santa Barbara, was was relatively small, about 200,000. They went for regional expansion starting in the late 1980s and started establishing branches out of the immediate Santa Barbara area. The bank was generous to their retired employees, providing some health and dental care benefits. Some came away with very substantial amounts. Some of the senior loan officers, executives, and managers who had been with the bank for many years had the opportunity to retire well relatively young, relying on their bank stock sitting in the company’s ESOP. I found it was not so easy to get a loan from them, as some of my real estate clients discovered. I’m not going to portray the people who founded and ran the bank as geniuses or saints, or that they never made mistakes, but I will say they were honest, careful, concerned, and dedicated to the bank. Many of the senior level executives were life-long employees of the bank and had acquired a great deal of wealth from their stock purchases over the years. They hired bright people who took the firm’s banking philosophy seriously.
I know several that became wealthy and the stock comprised most of their asset base. Many investors became very well off from their investment, especially the early investors who benefited from stock splits over the years. There was a standing list of people who wished to invest if stock became available. The stock was closely held in that no one ever sold stock unless they had to or died. After a few years it was clear that the bank was enjoying solid, but not spectacular, growth and paid regular dividends to its shareholders. Since 1960 SBBT had built itself on a conservative business model that relied on lending to local individuals and businesses, using the connections and reputation of their founders and the knowledge they had of the community they served.
That bank is privately owned by a single local entrepreneur. Only one other local bank has survived long-term and thrives as an independent entity, the much smaller Montecito Bank & Trust founded in 1975. There were a number of other local banks that started here which either went out of business or were acquired by a larger institution. Founded by civic leaders, it was one of the few local banks that thrived and survived over the years. It also may be the year it goes out of business if a recent rescue deal isn’t completed.įor almost 50 years, SBBT was a Santa Barbara institutions. This is the year that Santa Barbara Bank & Trust (Pacific Capital Bancorp Nasdaq:PCBC) celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
0 kommentar(er)
