Shareholders of San Luis Obispo-based Mission Community Bancorp have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a proposed merger with Heritage Oaks Bancorp out of Paso Robles. The $56 million deal was announced in October 2013 and would leave Heritage Oaks as the survivor and the largest bank based in the Tri-Counties.
The multimillion-dollar sale of a prime property in the heart of the Central Coast’s busiest downtown comes amid a flurry of building activity that had some developers bidding on the lot in hopes of developing the bank building’s adjacent parking lot, which faces the corner of Marsh and Osos streets. But the timing was too good for Heritage Oaks to pass the location up, said Simone Lagomarsino, the bank’s CEO.
Investors in Ventura County Business Bank, a small commercial lender that was acquired by Royal Business Bank in 2011, are suing its new owners and former executives, alleging fraud and misrepresentation. The plaintiffs — Mark Engle, Paul Turley, Mark Ioele, Ronnie Case, Dennis McCarty, Kuen Sil Park, Holger Blank and Farihan Uwaydah — allege that Read More →
PacWest Bancorp’s contentious acquisition of First California Bank has closed but the dust hasn’t settled yet on the $243 million merger. As the deal was sealed, the banks announced that federal regulators had ordered First California to pay a $600,000 fine and set up $1.1 million in restitution to more than 64,000 consumers who had Read More →
By Guest commentary / Friday, March 8th, 2013 / Op/Eds, Opinion / Comments Off on Op/ed: California banks are committed to supporting the credit needs of Golden State businesses
By Rodney Brown on March 8, 2013 It has been more than four years since the onset of the Great Recession, and during the past few years our country and the state of California have been slowly progressing down the road to economic recovery. As the economy continues to improve and confidence rises, California banks Read More →