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“
Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all of the happiness and growth occurs
while you’re climbing it.
”
-Andy Rooney
uring 2014, we reworked our key strategies and developed what we refer to as the “seven keeps.” These
“keeps” define our culture and help the reader better understand our Company. The fourth “keep” is “keep growing.”
We believe it is a bold, brave step to make a commitment to keep growing. Since the Bank’s formation in 1977,
we have traveled down this path of continued, measured and consistent growth. This has been driven by organic
growth as we placed de novo offices throughout the Central Valley and we grew our market share in those com-
munities. Additionally, our first whole bank acquisition occurred in 2000 when we purchased Sierra National Bank,
which added four offices in Kern County. More recently, we acquired Santa Clara Valley Bank with three branches
in the Ventura County and Santa Clarita area. Through all of our expansion, our passion for providing the highest
level of service through community banking has grown. Our bankers are committed to seeing that each branch is
truly part of the community.
As the first quarter of 2015 closed, Jim Holly, our founding President and CEO, completed his retirement from bank
management, transitioning into his new role as Vice Chairman of the board. Jim and the board are committed to
the long-term success of the bank, and worked to see that the transition occurred as smoothly as possible. Bill Bliss
once said, “The number one role of any leader is to identify and prepare their successor.” Even though it is never an
easy task, Jim certainly took this role seriously and as his successor, I appreciate his commitment and mentorship.
Jim left me with a strong example of bank leadership, one which will continue to inspire my actions as the Bank
continues to grow and prosper.
Throughout 2015 we continued this tradition of growth with strong increases in both loans and deposits through-
out our footprint. Notably, deposits increased over 7% and loans increased by more than 16%. Part of the increase
in loans came from our mortgage warehouse lines, which are cyclical and can vary; however, it was good to see a
strong increase in this area as a result of the efforts of our Real Estate Industries Team efforts. Commercial real
estate and agricultural loans increased as well. These results were driven by the focused marketing and business de-
velopment efforts of our bankers, which is the hallmark of community banking. I am privileged to work with quality
executives, officers and staff; we will work together to see our bank continue to grow and prosper. We endeavor to
fill banking needs throughout our markets and, as we say in our brand promise, we strive to make every community
we’re part of better.
In addition to our organic branch growth, we have a long history of successfully placing and growing de novo offices.
Following our purchase of Santa Clara Valley Bank, we established a Loan Production Office in the city of Oxnard in
May of 2015. This is a strategy we have used successfully in the past throughout our footprint. We believe this will
allow us to further penetrate the Ventura County market and provides us the opportunity to compete in the lending
space in that area.
Also of note, our net income for 2015 was over $18 million which is an increase of 18.5% from 2014; this is the third
highest net income in our Bank’s history. As indicated above, it was driven by our strong loan growth and funded
with robust deposit growth. We believe growth is important, however it should be strategic, well planned, and ulti-
mately lead to improving and strengthening net income.
During his 2014 message Jim Holly referenced our fourth vision for growth, specifically, expansion into Southern
PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
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