Westamerica Bancorporation is the holding company for Westamerica Bank and its subsidiaries. The commercial and regional community bank, headquartered in San Rafael, California, has $4.7 billion in assets and more than 90 branches in Northern and Central California.
History
Westamerica Bancorporation is a northern California bank holding company comprising two principal subsidiaries: Westamerica Bank and Bank of Lake County, both community banks serving individuals and business clients. The holding company also oversees the operations of Community Banker Services Corporation and Westcore, which perform certain administrative functions. Westamerica Bancorporation operates more than 50 branches in 12 California counties including Marin, Napa, and Sonoma. From a handful of small community banks in the early 1970s operating under a bank holding company organization, Westamerica had expanded by the mid-1990s to a position as one of the largest networks of community banks serving northern California and as a market share leader in many of the local areas it served.
Formed in 1972 under the name of Independent Bankshares Corporation, the holding company consolidated three previously unaffiliated banks: Bank of Marin, Bank of Sonoma County, and First National Bank of Mendocino County, which was formerly known as First National Bank of Cloverdale. The new structure began operations in 1973.
The three individual banks which formed the 1972 holding company and many of the subsequent additions to the Westamerica network are invested with their own community banking history. Many of these individual banks trace their roots to banks which were formed by local business people to provide specialty financing for the local community business base. Many of these California businesses—often involved in agriculture—faced problems securing loans from big-city banks which had strong ties to the interests of their railroad customers.
The First National Bank of Mendocino County provided the holding company with its oldest bank charter dating to 1886. The Foster family of Marin County was one of the original families instrumental in founding the Mendocino bank which was formerly known as the First National Bank of Cloverdale. The bank was founded to provide financing for the people involved in agricultural interests in the Mendocino area where sheep ranching was a dominant industry. The Bank of Marin County was formed by businessmen involved in the dairy business and other local merchants.
The Bank of Sonoma County served the western portion of the county, where cattle ranchers and dairy farmers were the major economic players. The bank was a major financier for the area's apple growers who produced the red-and-yellow skin Gravenstein apples primarily used to make applesauce.
In the 1920s, prominent pear growers, including the Bucknell family, were involved in creating the Bank of Lake County, formerly called the Bank of Upper Lake. That bank expanded and branched as the local economy grew along the shores of Clear Lake.
Vaca Valley Bank's roots are linked to the Gibson family and its local business interests in newspapers and publishing in Solano County and the surrounding area. Westamerica Chairman David L. Payne's grandfather, Luther Gibson, was chairman of Vaca Valley Bank. Payne became involved in the newspaper and publishing side of the Gibson family business in the late 1970s and continued the family tradition in banking in the latter part of the 1980s.
Though their origins are more recent, other banks in the Westamerica network also trace their history to the growth in their local communities. Napa Valley Bank was founded upon the expanding wine and tourism industries in the area in the 1960s. CapitolBank in Sacramento County and Gold Country Bank in Nevada County were fueled by the influx of retirees when that area in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range became an attractive relocation spot for older citizens in the 1970s.
During the 1970s, the parent company, Independent Bancshares Corporation, followed a conservative acquisition policy that entailed purchasing community banks in a county-by-county stepping-stone pattern. In 1974, the company acquired Bank of Lake County, a California state-chartered bank that operated in the county adjacent to where Westamerica's existing operations were located. Gold County Bank in 1979 and Vaca Valley Bank in 1981 were each purchased by exchanging shares of the company for the shares of the acquired banks.