Local banks offer personal touch
(Reprinted from The Record, February 27, 2005)
By David Siders
Record Staff Writer STOCKTON -- In a year that saw large banks buy two locally owned financial institutions, Derrell Kelso Jr. said he was glad he went small. When a four-alarm warehouse fire destroyed Onions Etc. in northeast Stockton one Saturday last summer, Kelso, president and owner of the company, said his bank, Community Bank of San Joaquin, called him the following Monday.
"He says, 'We're there for you,'" [Kelso] said. The bank gave him a loan and extended his line of credit he said. Community Bank, one of the area's smallest, has just one office. And Kelso did not seek it out. The bank came to him, he said. He said the Yokuts Street bank, now 5 years old, wrote him a letter and asked if he cared to join. He did. He said he was banking elsewhere "just because it was on my way home," he said.
"I didn't have anybody that really cared about who I was," he said. In April 2004, San Francisco-based BancWest Corp. agreed to buy Stockton's second-largest financial institution, Union Safe Deposit Bank. Five months later, Lodi-based First Financial Bancorp, parent of Bank of Lodi, was bought by Sacramento-based Placer Sierra Bancshares. Jane Butterfield, president of Community Bank, said the sales were unfortunate for communities that
rely on the charitable nature of local banks. On the other hand, the sales were good from a business standpoint for the community banks that are left. She said Community Bank started making a profit just two years ago. Earnings were up 127 percent in 2004 over 2003, she said. "We're really just starting to hit our stride," she said. Particular clients -- small businesses and individuals who want a personal touch -- seek out small banks, she
said. Eight locally owned banks remain in the county. As of September 2004, Bank of Stockton and Farmers & Merchants Bank of Central Calif. both had more than $1 billion in assets, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s web site. Five others, including Community Bank of San Joaquin, have more than $100 million. Kelso, whose company has moved to Rough and Ready Island, said you do not realize the importance of business
relationships until a tragedy hits. He said his bank responded. "I was humbled," he said. << Return to What Others Are Saying
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