RankingBanking 24 Digital (1) - Flipbook - Page 6
4
Capitalizing
on Disruption:
California’s
Entrepreneurial
Five Star Bancorp
By John Engen
J
ames Beckwith, CEO of Five Star
tainable: Setting up shop in the San Francisco
Bancorp, is always looking for op-
Bay Area. The company’s stated goal is to be the
portunities to grow his $3.6 billion
preeminent bank in northern California, and that’s
Rancho Cordova, California-based
tough to do without a Bay Area presence. But how
franchise. A decade ago, he stum-
could a small bank from suburban Sacramento
bled across a profitable niche fi-
gain a foothold?
nancing manufactured housing
“Realistically, how would we get someone from
parks that has turned into a core
one of the banks there to say, ‘Yeah, let’s leave our
growth engine. Five Star also made hay during
current situation and join Five Star Bank,’” Beck-
the pandemic originating loans under the federal
with says.
government’s Paycheck Protection Program, when
Then March 2023 happened. Silicon Valley
small business owners couldn’t get bigger banks to
Bank collapsed over liquidity concerns, followed
pick up the phone.
quickly by Signature Bank and then First Republic
For a while, one long-term goal seemed unat-
Bank — all institutions with large presences in the
