Bank of the West
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| Bank of the West | |
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| Type | Private (owned by BNP Paribas) |
| Founded | 1874 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco (with major support centers in Omaha and Fargo) |
| Key people | Michael Shepherd, President & 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, with $56.7 billion in assets as of March 31, 2007, is a full-service commercial bank serving customers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming through a network of more than 700 retail and commercial locations. A subsidiary of holding company BancWest Corporation, Bank of the West is the third-largest commercial bank based in the western United States. Currently wholly owned by French universal bank BNP Paribas (BNPP), Bank of the West traces its origins back to California and 1874.
Its subsidiary Essex Credit Corporation offers loans on marine pleasure craft and recreation vehicles. Its subsidiary BW Insurance Agency, Inc. offers auto, homeowners, commercial, worker’s compensation and general liability insurance. Its subsidiary BancWest Investment Services offers mutual funds, annuities, IRA and other tax-advantaged accounts, education savings plans, and life insurance.
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.
Bank of the West sponsors many sporting events, including the annual Bank of the West Classic professional tennis tournament, a U.S. Open series event.
[edit] Divisions
The Regional Banking Group provides consumer and commercial banking services and products: deposit accounts, credit cards, insurance, investments and wealth management services, private banking, mortgage and home equity credit, and residential construction lending. It provides these services through retail branches, for individuals and small businesses with up to $1 million in credit needs; commercial banking offices, for middle-market commercial customers with up to $50 million in annual revenue; construction loan offices, for residential construction relationships with up to $5 million in credit needs; private banking offices, for high net-worth individuals served with a specialized product set through a single point of contact; and 762 ATMs, along with Internet and telephone banking channels.
A specialized “Pacific Rim Banking” division appeals to Asian businesses and individuals through 19 multilingual branches in California.
Regional Banking also encompasses National Finance, which handles residential mortgages, auto loans and leases, and loans for marine pleasure craft and recreational vehicles nationwide, directly to consumers and through 5,600 dealers. Essex Credit Corporation, a subsidiary, focuses on brokerage and refinancing of larger marine and RV credits.
The Commercial Banking Group serves larger corporate customers through several primary business lines. The National Banking Division serves companies with annual revenues greater than $50 million requiring specialized expertise and customized product solutions. Agribusiness serves agricultural customers whose credit needs exceed $500,000; Bank of the West is the number-three lender to production agriculture in the United States. Real Estate Industries serves commercial real estate and construction clients with credit needs of more than $5 million.
The Commercial Banking Group also provides expertise and specialized services in equipment financing through the bank’s branches and brokers across the U.S., including vendor finance programs; religious institution credit (being the largest bank lender in the U.S.); cash management; loan syndication; trade finance; SBA credit, through branches, online, and representative offices nationally; correspondent banking services for financial institutions and municipalities; health care institutions and government agencies; and capital markets.
[edit] History
The Bank of the West began as Farmers National Gold Bank of San Jose, California, in 1874. When all bank notes became convertible to gold or silver in 1880, the bank converted from a gold national bank and changed its name to the First National Bank of San Jose, California.
In 1970, Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) established the French Bank of California. Later that decade, First National Bank of San Jose changed its name to Bank of the West. In 1979, BNP bought Bank of the West and merged in the French Bank of California.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Bank of the West bought several other banks and branches. In 1987, Bank of the West bought Bank of Los Gatos. This was followed by the 1990 purchase of Central Banking Systems; the 1991 purchase of 30 branches in northern California from failed Imperial Savings and Loan; the 1992 purchase of Atlantic Financial Federal Savings Bank from the Resolution Trust Corporation; the 1993 purchase of 15 branches in northern California from Citibank; the 1995 purchase of NorthBay Savings Bank, headquartered in Petaluma, California; and the 1997 purchase of branches from Bank of America and Coast Federal Bank.
In 1995, First Hawaiian Bank established Pacific One Bank to hold 30 branches in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho that it acquired from West One Bank when that bank was acquired by another United States bank and had to divest certain assets. Three years later, in 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 Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank, with Bank of the West absorbing Pacific One. The creation of BancWest Bancorp caused the now-called 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.
In 1999, Bank of the West bought Sierra West Bancorp. This transaction temporarily diluted BNPP’s ownership of the holding company to 42%.
In 2001, Wells Fargo Bank acquired First Security Bancorp. To avoid antitrust issues, Wells Fargo sold First Securities’ branches in New Mexico and Wells Fargo’s branches in Nevada to Bank of the West. Also in 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.) In 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. The year 2001 concluded with the December purchase by Bank of the West of United California Bank from UFJ Bank, of Japan.
In March 2004, Bank of the West 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, Bank of the West agreed to buy USDB Bancorp, the parent of Union Safe Deposit Bank. In December 2005, Bank of the West 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.
In January 2006, Bank of the West opened a representative office in Tokyo, Japan, and in September 2007, it opened a representative office in Taipei, Taiwan.
[edit] External links
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