Just days after revealing plans to purchase Vancouver-based First Independent Bank, Sterling Savings Bank executives announced they’re not done expanding.
Ezra Eckhardt, Sterling Savings’ president and chief operating officer, said his company will continue to pursue “strategic partnerships” similar to First Independent, as the bank extends its product line across its four-and-a-half state footprint.
On Monday, the Spokane-based bank announced it had signed a purchase and assumption agreement with First Independent to acquire certain assets and liabilities, including all of its deposits and banking operations, which include 14 branches in Southwest Washington and two offices in Portland.
“What this [acquisition] allows us to do is to become a super-community bank,” said Eckhardt, adding that Sterling Savings has no plans to expand outside of the Pacific Northwest. Rather, with a 4 percent market share in Washington and a 3 percent market share in Oregon, Eckhardt said his company sees opportunities for expansion within the region.
“If Sterling grows 25 percent, that’s only a 1 percent piece of the entire market in Washington,” he explained. “That amount would hardly be missed by the large national banks.”
According to Eckhardt, Sterling Savings identified the Vancouver market as one of two areas within the state (Central Washington being the other) where there is a significant amount of room to grow as a company. The announced merger, he said, is the result of a process in which each organization got to spend time with the other and get to know each other.
“It was an opportunity to not only share and listen to the talk, but to observe whether or not they walked the talk,” said First Independent President Jeanne Firstenburg, who will remain as president of the Southwest Washington region for Sterling Savings. “In this case, Sterling people walk the talk.”
Why now?
Firstenburg said the decision to sell First Independent was less a result of the down economy, and more about “bringing the future of community banking to Vancouver and Southwest Washington.” In fact, she said the transition might have come sooner had it not been for the Great Recession.
During the eight months the bank was on the market, Firstenburg said she spoke with a number of potential buyers before deciding that Sterling Savings was the right fit. In the end, she said the cultural and community value-based similarities between the two community banks were what sealed the deal.
As for the employees of First Independent, Firstenburg said their reaction has been hugely positive.
“I think the reason they [First Independent employees] have celebrated this choice the way they have so quickly is because this gives them opportunity to really lift off everything we’ve built here,” she said. “I can already see the excitement in the eyes of the people.”
