Private bank to open first Santa Barbara location
The fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the banking crises that spun out from that led to the departure of some regional banks — like First Republic — but it also brought opportunity for some others.
1st Century Bank, a division of MidFirst Bank that acts as the company’s California operations, is expanding its Southern California presence and that includes opening its first location in Santa Barbara.
Announced on Oct. 2, 1st Century Bank does not yet have an opening date for its first Santa Barbara location, but President and CEO Jason DiNapoli told the Business Times they are currently negotiating to open a space “as soon as possible.”
“While there are several strong headwinds in the banking industry currently illustrated by the very low value of publicly traded banks, we see it as an excellent opportunity to build while others are retreating,” DiNapoli said.
The other two locations 1st Century will be expanding into include the South Bay and San Diego.
DiNapoli noted that Santa Barbara and its neighboring communities have always been on 1st Century’s list for expansion plans, but “we just never found the right people.”
However, with the sale of First Republic to JPChase Morgan, that opened the door for some folks to look for a job elsewhere.
As such, First Century also announced, alongside the expansion plans, the hiring of Karin Napel and Matt Keenan to head 1st Century Bank’s growth in the Santa Barbara market.
Both Napel and Keenan come from First Republic Bank, which did have one Santa Barbara location on State Street.
Both Napel and Keenan join the team as vice president and managing directors with both
specializing in serving high net worth individuals, real estate professionals, private equity and commercial and industrial lending.
In total, 1st Century hired 22 bankers from First Republic.
“Karen and Matt are exceptional bankers with deep roots in the industry and deep roots in the community,” DiNapoli said.
“They were not looking for jobs. They were at First Republic Bank, an exceptional bank, but now we are so fortunate to have them on our team. So really it was really talent driven that created the timing with us always wanting Santa Barbara as a location.”
DiNapoli said one way 1st Century is different from other banking options in Santa Barbara, such as Montecito Bank & Trust or Bank of America, is that 1st Century operates somewhere in the middle of those two.
MidFirst Bank is the largest privately owned bank in the nation.
“So, we’re larger than community banks in terms of just what we can bring in terms of loan services and deposit services, but we’re much smaller than the BoA’s, the Chase and the Wells Fargo’s so we can move much more agile than they can,” he said.
Asked about future expansion into other parts of the Central Coast and Santa Barbara County, DiNapoli said they would like to look beyond just the city of Santa Barbara but there are no immediate plans.
“Being a private bank, we don’t worry about quarter-to-quarter results, we think long term and we want to be part of the community long term. First Republic and Union Bank are both gone. We want to step in and fill the void of where those banks were, and be a long-term partner in the community,” DiNapoli said.
1st Century Bank first began operating in 2004 with DiNapoli joining in his current role in 2006. He said he is overall “excited to join this community.”
“I joined this bank before we even opened. I was here for the first client to come in and every client we have brought in since and I am so proud of the bank and where we stand today,” DiNapoli said.
“How you enter the Santa Barbara Community is always a challenge, but if you do it with the right people and a long-term horizon, I know we’ll be very successful there and I think the community will benefit with us being there as well.”
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