WALLA WALLA -In less than a year, the Banner Corp. has opened two Banner Bank branches in southwestern Idaho, purchased buildings for at least three more in Western Washington, and is expecting to open another as part of a blueprint for building its regional presence.
The Walla Walla company, which has a branch in Everett and is planning another in Lynnwood, is now the largest commercial bank headquartered in the state of Washington, said D. Michael Jones, president and chief executive officer.
“You have to word that very carefully,” he said. “But right now we get to say that.”
Pacific Northwest Bank, a subsidiary of Pacific Northwest Bancorp, had previously been among the giants. But in November 2003, it was acquired by California-based Wells Fargo &Co. How long Banner will remain the largest is difficult to determine, Jones said.
“It will most likely involve a merger of two smaller commercial banks now operating in the state,” he said. “It could last a few years or less depending on merger activity.”
Being big isn’t really as much the goal as being the best, Jones said.
“The overall mission is to become the best community bank in the Pacific Northwest,” he said. “We want to be a regional bank.”
Getting there has been an undertaking. Five months before Jones was named president of the company in February 2002, Banner officials announced a lending executive in the Seattle area was being investigated in connection with a check kiting scheme that could amount to a more than $5 million loss for the Walla Walla-based institution.
The bank had “serious loan issues,” Jones said.
It also had identity issues, he added. Although the company was one of Washington’s oldest financial institutions – founded as First Savings Bank in 1890 – the acquisition of numerous other banks in the 1990s gave it multiple personalities.
“The bank was an amalgamation of six different organizations,” Jones said.
The main focus in the last two years consequently has been developing a single culture.
“From Bellingham to Hermiston, Ore., the basic essence of the company was made uniform,” Jones said.
That includes a new service center, where operations taking place all over downtown Walla Walla were combined into a central location, freeing up space that could be used to expand the area’s retail market.
About half of the company’s 200 employees work out of the new building.
Although most customers will never need to step foot inside – and won’t be able to without special access – the move is a major step for Banner as it streamlines its operation and moves into further expansion.
Jones said a lease is being signed for space in Lynnwood, along with work on its office in Yakima and a branch in Lynden.
Growth in the company is taking place more rapidly on the west side of the Cascades, he said. About 55 percent of the bank’s assets come from that area of the state.
But with growth in the Boise, Idaho, market possibly balancing some of that, Jones said Banner Bank is dedicated to its local headquarters.
“Today in the electronic world that we live, we can be headquartered here for a long time,” he said.
Associated Press
Banner Bank CEO Mike Jones has a simple goal in establishing more branches in more locations. “The overall mission is to become the best community bank in the Pacific Northwest,” he says.
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