Every so often, a small bank will outgrow its name and need to decide on a new one. But it's rare for the bank's CEO to decide on the name before he even arrives at the bank.
Such is the case for Friendly Hills Bancorp, which is changing its name to First Pacific — something its CEO, Nathan Rogge, tried to do at his last job, running Bank of Southern California.
"I always had my eye on that name," said Rogge, who ran Bank of Southern California from February 2008 through June 2021, then took over at Friendly Hills in December 2021.
Rogge wanted to take over the First Pacific moniker in 2010 when the previous bank of that name failed. More than a dozen years later, with that First Pacific Bank no longer active, the name was free for the taking, so Rogge was able to finally grab it. Friendly Hills arrived at its new name without hiring an outside consultant, according to Rogge.
"The pieces just kind of fell into place," Rogge said. "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart."
The new name gives the $329 million-asset Friendly Hills more room to grow. The bank is based in Whittier, California and has expanded into three Southern California counties over the past 14 months.
"All of a sudden, that Friendly Hills sense of what it is and how it fits into the bigger picture didn't really make sense anymore," Rogge said. "First Pacific gives you the breadth [for] other opportunities … expansion into new markets, taking on different types of lending, even an acquisition."
The new name is expected to take effect in December. The bank's marketing department led a process that considered "probably a dozen different names" before settling on First Pacific.
Friendly Hills announced its name change three months after the $441.8 million-asset Verimore Bank
As with Friendly Hills, that name change came after the bank concluded it had grown too big for the First Missouri brand.
"What was pretty clear to us was we'd outgrown our name," CEO Kristie Stuewe said. "Four out of five of our locations are within 30 miles of a state border, including Kansas and Iowa."
Verimore, too, conducted its name search internally, but unlike Rogge and Friendly Hills, Stuewe didn't have a candidate in mind, and the process experienced some ups and downs. Several traditional options were eliminated after research indicated the name, or a close variation, was already in use.
"I admit I let my frustration get the better of me and jokingly made a comment that we were going to have to grab some Scrabble tiles and throw a handful out" to create a new name, Stuewe said.
The breakthrough came when Marketing Director Ken Honeck suggested a more realistic option, combining root words to create a new brand.
"Where we landed was with one Latin root, veri, meaning true, and one English word, more," said Honeck, who added that he relied on recollections from a college class that delved into the Latin and Greek roots of English words.
"It was pretty clear [an existing] word wasn't going to pass the test," Honeck said. "It would give us no confidence whatsoever that we weren't stepping on someone's toes."
Beyond addressing growth issues, Stuewe said the new name should signal to the market that Verimore can deliver all the modern conveniences customers have come to expect, while retaining its identity as a Main Street bank.
"It was important for us to make sure neither our current customers nor prospective ones felt like they were having to choose between a community bank and what they are known for and the big banks for convenience. We can be both," Stuewe said.
Rogge's appointment as Friendly Hills' CEO came a month after an
While Friendly Hills reported a loss of $736,000 through the first nine months of 2022, much of that red ink can be attributed to growing pains. Employee compensation and facilities costs rose 58% year-over-hear as Friendly Hills hired a team of veteran bankers and launched a truck lending group in May. The bank opened a branch in San Diego a month later.
Interest income jumped 44%, but its growth trailed noninterest spending.
For his part, Rogge likes Friendly Hills' prospects with its strategy of serving small and medium-sized businesses in a wider Southern California footprint. Rogge is also keen on adding new specialty lending products.
"I'm fascinated and inspired by the idea of finding niches [we] can have an impact on and be really good at," Rogge said. "From my perspective, truck lending is the first of hopefully many ventures."
