Bank of the West

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Bank of the West

Type	Private (owned by BNP Paribas)
Founded	1874
Headquarters	San Francisco, California
Key people	Don McGrath, Chairman & CEO
Industry	Banking
Revenue	$2.05 billion USD (2005)
Net income	$526 million USD (2005)
Employees	10,700 (2005)
Website	www.bankofthewest.com

Bank of the West is the third-largest commercial bank headquartered in the western United States and the second largest commercial bank headquartered in California.

The BancWest Corporation is the holding company of both Bank of the West in the Western United States, and First Hawaiian Bank in Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan. The BancWest Corporation is controlled and wholly owned by French universal bank BNP Paribas. Bank of the West is a sponsor of the annual Bank of The West Classic tennis tournament, A US Open Series Event.

Acquisitions of smaller banks, such as the recent acquisition of Commercial Federal Bank, have helped fueled a substantial growth of the bank in the last years.

The bank has 680 branch banking locations in California, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Bank of The West sponsors many sporting events including the Annual Bank of the West Classic pro tennis tournament and the Bank of the West Beach Games, held in Huntington Beach, CA.

[edit] Divisions

Bank of the West categorizes itself in three divisions, Regional Banking, Consumer Finance, and Commercial Banking.

Regional Banking is defined as the bank's branch system, as well as its special business branches, private banking and small construction lending offices. The business branches, called Commercial Banking Offices, focus on businesses with sales between 5 and 50 million. The group's private banking offices were originally business bankers focused on professional segements, such as lawyers accountants and architects. At present the companies private banking is being revamped to be what private banking is known for, a segment focused on high net worth individuals. The small balance construction lending office concept, which targets small real estate developers with loans between 500 thousand to 5 million, is a concept originally from Community First Bank which is being spread throughout the entire organization.

Consumer Finance is defined as the revenues and income from the consumer loans (excluding mortgage loans) originated throughout the branch system, as well as the consumer loans originated indirectly. Indirect lending is defined as offering loans through other businesses' channels. These loans are primarily auto, rv, and boat loans sold through dealers, as well as auto leases.

Commercial Banking includes banking offices targeted towards large businesses of greater then 50 million dollars in revenues, as well as these specific industry groups:

Credit Unions: Bank of the West has historically been a large corespondent bank for credit unions
Churches: Central Bank, bought by Bank of the West, invented a special church lending department and guidelines causing it to become the largest Church lender in the country
Financial Institutions and Escrow Companies: This group came primarily from the acquisition of United California Bank (Sanwa Bank)
Real Estate: A large construction lending group
SBA Financing: Originally from Sierrawest bancorp, this group focuses on originated SBA loans and buying SBA portfolios nationwide.
Commercial Finance: A specialized asset based lending group

[edit] History

1874: The Bank of the West began as Farmers National Gold Bank of San Jose, California.
1880: Converted from a Gold National Bank and changed titles to the First National Bank of San Jose, California.
1970: Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) established French Bank of California.
1970s: First National Bank of San Jose changed its name to Bank of the West.
1979: BNP bought Bank of the West and merged in French Bank of California.
1987: BW bought Bank of Los Gatos.
1990: BW bought Central Banking Systems.
1991: BW bought 30 branches in Northern California from failed Imperial Savings and Loan.
1992: BW bought Atlantic Financial Federal Savings Bank from the Resolution Trust Corporation.
1993: BW bought 15 branches in Northern California from Citibank.
1995: BW bought NorthBay Savings Bank headquartered in Petaluma, CA.
1995: First Hawaiian (see below) established Pacific One Bank to hold 30 branches in Washington, Oregon and Idaho that it acquired from West One Bank.

Bank of The West Classic

1997: BW bought branches from Bank of America and Coast Federal Bank.
1998: BNP and First Hawaiian Inc., the parent of First Hawaiian Bank and Pacific One Bank, created a company under the BancWest Bancorp name to hold BW and First Hawaiian Bank, with BW absorbing Pacific One. The creation of BancWest Bancorp caused now BNP Paribas’ (BNPP) ownership of the holding company to fall to 45%. BNPP also agreed not to increase its ownership of the bank holding company before November 2001.
1999: BW bought Sierra West Bancorp. This transaction temporarily diluted BNPP’s ownership of the holding company to 42%.
2001: First Security Bancorp and Wells Fargo merged. To avoid antitrust issues, they sold First Securities’ branches in New Mexico and Wells Fargo’s branches in Nevada to BW.
2001: First Hawaiian Bank bought Union Bank of California’s branches in Guam and Saipan. First Hawaiian had established its first branch in Guam in 1970 and its first branch in Saipan in 1997. (Union Bank of California had established its branch in Guam in 1974.)
May 2001: The independent directors of BancWest Bancorp established a Special Committee that then unanimously voted to accept BNPP’s offer to acquire the remaining 55% of BancWest Bancorp, making the holding company a wholly owned subsidiary of BNP.
Dec. 2001: BW bought United California Bank from UFJ Bank, of Japan.
Mar. 2004: BW announced the purchase of Community First Bankshares, a bank holding company that operated Community First National Bank, headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota, which had 155 offices in 12 states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Soon after BW agreed to buy USDB Bancorp, parent of Union Safe Deposit Bank.
Dec. 2005: BW bought Commercial Federal Corporation of Omaha, Nebraska. This merger added offices in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma to Bank of the West.
Feb. 2006: BW opens representative office in Tokyo, Japan.