Columbia Bank works to ease transition

Columbia Bank, the new owner of eight branches of Bank of Whitman, is the wholly owned subsidiary of Columbia Banking System, Inc. based in Tacoma. The company was the lone bidder when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation began looking for suitors interested in acquiring the struggling financial institution.

Columbia Banking System has been growing in recent years despite the financial crisis that has stricken the banking industry. The Washington state-chartered bank has acquired Summit Bank and First Heritage Bank in May and Columbia River Bank in January of 2010.

“We are pleased to work closely with the FDIC to assume all deposits of the Bank of Whitman and to preserve eight of the branches,” said Melanie J. Dressel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia Banking System. “We warmly welcome former Bank of Whitman customers into our extended Columbia Bank network, and want to assure them that their deposits are safe, available and remain FDIC insured to the maximum permitted by law.”

Columbia Banking System has 93 banking offices including 68 branches in Washington and 25 branches in Oregon. In Oregon the bank does business under the Bank of Astoria name in six communities.

In a press release issued Friday, Columbia Bank’s top officer expressed confidence in the company’s ability to serve its new customers.

“After former Bank of Whitman services are integrated to our systems, customers will have full access to all Columbia Bank services, including the 101-branch Columbia Bank network through Washington and Oregon,” she said. “We look forward to working with the Bank of Whitman team during this transition and are committed to serving our new Eastern Washington communities.”

During an interview with The Journal on Monday, Dressel said Columbia Bank is strong, viable and well positioned to serve its new communities.

“First of all, we are very safe and sound,” she said. “To put it in perspective, we have 24 percent total risk-based capital. To be well capitalized you have to have 10 percent. We have almost 2.5 times that.”

Risk-based capital represents the amount of capital a financial institution must have on hand as liquid assets to protect customers against adverse developments.

Dressel said Columbia Bank’s stability is a result of a strong loan portfolio.

“Our loan portfolio is very diversified,” she said. “So we don’t have all of our eggs in one basket. We have a very well diversified loan portfolio and agriculture is an important part. We bought Columbia River Bank in January of last year and they did quite a bit of ag lending with really good expertise we found it to be very helpful for us.

Dressel comes from a small, rural community and emphasized Columbia Bank’s desire to serve communities.

“Bank of Whitman helps us extend our geographic presence in the Pacific Northwest,” she said. “Just remember we want to be the community bank in all the communities we serve. I am a small town girl and I love the sense of community we have and we tend to surround ourselves with people who really value that.”

While Columbia Banking System only acquired eight of the Bank of Whitman’s 20 branches, Dressel said there will be an effort to find employment positions for some of those left out of work by the branch closures.

Seattle Business Magazine’s 100 Best Companies to work for 2010 awarded third place in the large employer category to Columbia Banking System in July of last year.

The Puget Sound Business Journal also dubbed the bank as one of “Washington’s Best Workplaces 2010.”