Federal bank regulators have officially lifted their close scrutiny of the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust parent company after two years of monitoring capital levels and expenditures.
The Federal Reserve Board announced this week that it pulled the “enforcement action” it mandated in 2010 against Pacific Capital Bancorp.
The Santa Barbara-based holding company needed regulators’ approval before paying dividends, incurring debt and purchasing stock, and had to make a plan for how it would maintain sufficient cash flow.
Community West Bancshares is going through similar consent orders; regulators told the parent company of Goleta-based Community West Bank in April that it must boost its total risk-based capital ratio to 12 percent in three years.
Union Bank’s parent company, UnionBanCal Corporation, purchased Pacific Capital Bancorp in March for $1.51 billion, pending regulatory approval. UnionBanCal has more than $90 billion in assets and more than 404 branches.
The San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce recently came out against the acquisition because the chamber said that the San Francisco-based Union Bank does not support the local African American business community, according to the San Francisco Business Times.
Texas billionaires Carl Webb and Gerald Ford invested in a $500 million Pacific Capital bailout in August 2010 after SBB&T netted a $405 million loss in 2009.
SBB&T earned $73.4 million in 2011, while many investors saw the value of their SBB&T shares significantly drop. The 52-year-old community bank will likely be rebranded early next year to Union Bank.
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @NoozhawkBiz, @noozhawk and @NoozhawkNews. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
