POULSBO — Liberty Bay Bank will be acquiring Banner Bank’s Poulsbo branch.
The transaction is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2018 and will see the purchase of approximately $25 million in business and personal account deposits from Banner’s only branch in Kitsap.
“We look forward to welcoming the employees and clients of the Poulsbo Banner Bank location to Liberty Bay Bank and extending to them our extraordinary client service and local expertise,” said Liberty Bay Bank President Rick Darrow in a Feb. 27 press release. “We believe this expansion is a natural fit that increases our opportunity to build new client relationships and strengthens our community.”
The decision to acquire Banner Bank, Darrow said, came after examining the lack of other nearby Banner Bank branches.
“What prompted the acquisition from my standpoint was we were looking to expand our deposit base here, locally,” Darrow said. “One of the things that I noticed when I looked at the branch network of Banner Bank was that they didn’t really have a strong presence in Kitsap County.”
Darrow said he believes that the reason for Banner Bank’s presence in Kitsap is mainly due to a series of branch acquisitions.
“It was originally a branch that was planted by Viking Bank years ago and through acquisitions with American West and then subsequently with Banner Bank, they acquired and picked up that branch over a period of time. So in a certain sense this is not an area that Banner has been committed to in terms of banking services, except for that branch,” Darrow explained. “If you know anything about our bank, we’re based here in Poulsbo, we’re committed to this community. This is our community and this is where we work and live and so it’s a great fit for us to bring on clients that live in this region.”
Liberty Bay Bank will pay a percentage of the total value of Banner Bank’s deposits in order to make the acquisition but Darrow said this percentage will likely fluctuate before the transaction is finalized in May. At the moment though, Darrow said Liberty Bay Bank would pay somewhere between 1.6 percent and 2 percent. The percentage, Darrow said, is determined by the types of deposits currently held by the bank and since that number can change, determining a set price for the acquisition would not be possible until the transaction is in the finalization process.
Darrow also said that Liberty Bay Bank would retain the Banner Bank Staff as part of the acquisition agreement.
“We understand that people and relationships with clients, they’re key to the community bank experience. We need to retain the valuable employees that have built connections with those in the local community,” Darrow explained. “It’s important for us to have employees that have been connectors within this community. There’s employees that have been there for awhile and we’re happy to have them join us,” the president added.
—Nick Twietmeyer is a reporter with Kitsap News Group. Nick Can be reached at ntwietmeyer@soundpublishing.com
