washington business
more to come
Further consolidation could come in the form of partAt the height of the last recession, the last day of the work
nerships or mergers. Brian Vance, CEO of Olympia-based
week became known as “FDIC Fridays” — the day the FedHeritage Bank, said there are some smaller banks that may
eral Deposit Insurance Commission and state and federal
not necessarily fail, but won’t have the ability to grow.
regulators close failing banks. Washington saw its fair share
“They’ll be looking for partners,” Vance said.
of such days (with the exception of the
Washington Mutual collapse, when
reinvention
regulators were so concerned that they
At B a n n e r B a n k ,
closed the bank on a Thursday).
live people answer
The state ranked fifth in the country
the phone instead
for total bank failures and for failures as
of phone trees. The
a total percentage of banks in the state,
c o m p a ny ’s C E O
in Washington from 2009 to 2011
according to Trepp LLC, a New Yorkroutinely calls cusbased company that maintains a watch
tomers to thank
list of troubled banks.
them for their busi From 2009 to 2011, the number of commercial banks in
ness and there’s a holiday giving tree up year round in the
Washington shrunk from 95 to 78, according to most recent
Renton branch simply because customers liked it.
report from FDIC. Total bank assets decreased from $76.1
It wasn’t always this way. The small changes were part
billion to $65.4 billion. This summer’s closure of the Bank
of a large plan to reinvent the bank after three years of net
of Whitman in Walla Walla isn’t included in the report.
losses. The bank had a heavy concentration of construction
H