U.S. Bank’s SBA Loan Division Ranked Third Nationwide

U.S. Bank, which acquired the Bank of Commerce in 1999 and still maintains its Small Business Administration division here, enjoyed another good year in 2005. It broke a prior year record, even with the national SBA program having reduced loan volumes.

For the year ended Sept. 30, USB’s SBA unit said it had made 4,703 loans valued at $496.4 million, compared with 3,398 loans worth $482.6 million the prior year.

USB ranked third nationwide behind No. 1 CIT Small Business Lending Corp. and Wells Fargo Bank.

David Bartram, president of USB’s SBA division in Scripps Ranch, said one reason behind the record volume was the SBA’s Express program.

Loans range in size from $5,000 to $250,000 and can be processed much faster than traditional loans.

“Additionally our ‘fees paid’ offer became a key advantage in our SBA real estate loan program, and thousands of our borrowers took advantage of it this past year,” Bartram said.

Within the San Diego SBA district, USB finished eighth with 98 loans valued at $10.1 million. The largest SBA lender in the district was Bank of America with 193 loans. The dollar volume leader was Wells Fargo Bank at $21.8 million.

According to the local SBA district office, loans this year totaled 1,510 valued at $352 million. That was more than 2005′s 1,395 loans, but below $401.3 million, the dollar volume for the year.

The breakdown in the two main loan programs was for the 7(a) program: 1,334 loans for $244 million. For the 504 program: 176 loans for $108 million.

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Embarcadero Bank To Open Soon:

San Diego’s newest community bank, Embarcadero Bank, is set to open Dec. 18, said Chief Executive Officer Steve Rippe.

The bank received its last regulatory hurdle, an OK from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Oct. 27, well after approval from the California Department of financial Institutions, its state regulator.

“It took us about 11 months from the time we filed our application last year,” Rippe said. “It was a lot longer than we expected.”

Embarcadero has the distinction of raising the largest capital base for a locally based community bank ever, attracting a bit more than $21 million in just a few weeks. While the nut was large, it was half of the $40 million raised this year by San Francisco’s Presidio Bank.

Before deciding to open downtown, Rippe looked at 40 to 50 sites from Del Mar to Chula Vista.

“Downtown is definitely on the upswing. There’s more residential activity now and that’s a good thing for deposits,” he said. “It’s also a good location relative to where our employees live, including me.”

Embarcadero’s board consists of attorney Jerry Suppa, chairman; Rippe; and Maria Kunac, designated president. It also includes Dan Denison, a retired banker; Ellen Geiger, retired banker; David Moore, investment manager; and Frank Paini, commercial real estate developer.

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World Loans Aren’t World Class:

Wachovia Bank, the Charlotte, N.C., lender that acquired Oakland-based World Savings this year through the purchase of parent Golden West financial Corp., released a report that showed nonperforming assets at the savings bank increased by 12 basis points in October compared with June.

Nonperforming assets as of Oct. 31 were $598 million, or 0.48 percent of the total loan portfolio. That was up from 0.36 percent of total loans as of June 30.

Analysts have been looking closely at World’s credit quality because of its focus on interest-only mortgages, especially in California.

On the positive side, World’s mortgage originations appeared to be stable, with the number coming in at $3.58 billion in October, nearly the same as September’s $3.6 billion. Yet, that was far off the nearly $4.6 billion in mortgages recorded in December 2005.

Thanks to the above-average interest rates on term deposits World was offering since the $26 billion deal was announced in May, the savings bank reported an increase in deposits to $68 billion from $62 billion at the end of June.

On another front, Wachovia said it doesn’t intend to consolidate branches in Southern California.

When it acquired World, Wachovia picked up 285 branches in 10 states, including 54 in Southern California and seven in the county.

Along with the branches obtained when it acquired Western financial Bank this year, Wachovia has 10 branches and 427 employees locally, said spokeswoman Karen Roberson.

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