Business & Finance
Business and Finance
Business and Finance
Mon, March 16, 2009
Fri, March 13, 2009
Thu, March 12, 2009 Columbia Commercial Bancorp: Columbia Community Bank Negotiates Action Plan
HILLSBORO, OR--(Marketwire - March 12, 2009) - Columbia Commercial Bancorp (
"The Bank's residential construction and land development loans are at the root of our challenges," states President and CEO, Rick A. Roby. "Challenges in this loan portfolio surfaced in mid-2008 and have been more profound than ever anticipated due to the unprecedented decline in the local and regional real estate markets. Fortunately our loan portfolio is diverse and the other segments continue to perform well, allowing the Company to still report net income for 2008 of $1.3 million, its ninth consecutive year of profitability in its ten years of operation," continued Roby.
The agreement formally outlines specific areas Bank management and its Board of Directors must address through the enhancement of various policies, modification of existing practice, and attainment of certain financial benchmarks. These areas include developing long-term strategic and shorter-term action plans to reduce the level of problem loans, reducing exposure to commercial real estate loans (more specifically residential construction and land development loans), maintaining an adequate loan loss allowance that accounts for the recent adverse economic events, and increasing capital and liquidity while reducing reliance on non-core funding sources such as brokered deposits.
The Bank will be required to maintain capital levels above those normally required under regulatory guidance. These requirements include maintaining a Tier 1 leverage ratio of at least 8.00% and Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of at least 10%, both within 90 days of the order. With a Tier 1 leverage ratio of 8.42% as of December 31, 2008, the Bank is already meeting this criterion. The Bank's Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio as of December 31, 2008 was 9.38%. The Bank is also required to maintain total risk based capital of 12.0% within 120 days of the agreement, which as of December 31, 2008 was 10.64%. "The Bank has already met one of the heightened standards and we are working hard to assure we meet the other criteria within the established time frames which should be accomplished through retained earnings, the reduction of construction and land development loans, and a small amount of capital raising through the Bank's holding company. The Bank further agreed to immediately adopt a plan to maintain a primary liquidity ratio of at least 15% through the life of the agreement and to also develop a long-term plan, subject to regulatory approval, to reduce its net non-core funding dependency. The Bank must report its compliance with these, capital, and other measurements to its regulators on a quarterly basis," Roby comments. "The conditions of our agreement are all attainable and consistent with management's objectives for the safe and sound operation of our Bank; we foresee the ability, and have every intent, to comply with all aspects of this agreement."
About Columbia Commercial Bancorp:
Information about the Company's stock may be obtained through the Over the Counter Bulletin Board at [ www.otcbb.com ]. Columbia Commercial Bancorp's stock symbol is CLBC.
Columbia Commercial Bancorp was formed in 2002 as a holding company for Columbia Community Bank, which was opened in 1999 by local business people to provide business loans and deposit products for Oregon businesses.
With offices in Hillsboro, Forest Grove, Tanasbourne and Tigard/Durham, Columbia Community Bank is dedicated to providing a superior and personalized business banking experience for its clients in and around Oregon. The Bank was named among the "100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon" by Oregon Business Magazine (2009 and 2007) and the Bank has also been named by Portland Business Journal as one of the "100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in Oregon" consistently over the past several years. In 2008, US Banker magazine ranked Columbia Commercial Bancorp number 15 among 1,115 financial institutions in the nation with assets of $2 billion or less based upon a three-year average return on equity.
For more information about Columbia Commercial Bancorp, or its subsidiary, Columbia Community Bank, call (503) 693-7500 or visit our website at [ www.columbiacommunitybank.com ]. Information contained in or linked to our website is not incorporated as a part of this release.
This press release contains forward-looking statements about management's plans and anticipated results of operations and financial condition. These statements relate primarily, but are not limited, to statements about management's present plans and intentions to address the obligations we have assumed by entering into the regulatory agreement, and our expectations of success in these endeavors. Additional forward-looking statements include plans and expectations about our strategy, deployment of resources, and expectations for future financial and operational performance. Readers can sometimes identify forward-looking statements by the use of prospective language and context, including words like "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "plans," "intends," or other similar terminology. Because forward-looking statements are, in part, an attempt to project future events and explain management's current plans and expectations, they are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actions and our financial and operational results to differ materially from those set forth in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our ability to increase our regulatory capital to required levels and to maintain those levels during the pendency of the regulatory agreement; our ability to estimate accurately the potential for losses inherent in our loan portfolio; our sensitivity to local and regional economic and other factors that affect the collectability of our loans and the value of collateral underlying our secured loans; our ability to satisfy the terms and conditions of the regulatory agreement and to satisfy applicable banking laws and regulations; our ability to maintain a satisfactory and economically viable net interest margin during times of rapidly and significantly fluctuating interest rates; and our ability to attract and retain qualified, effective management. Information presented in this release is accurate as of the date issued, but we cannot undertake to update our forward looking statements or the factors that may cause us to deviate from them.
