California bank enters Carson market

An already crowded banking scene in Carson City became even more so when Imperial Capital Bank opened a branch office at the start of the year.

Imperial Capital is the banking subsidiary of ITLA Capital Corp.

based in San Diego, and the Carson City branch is the first opened in Nevada by the company.

Along with traditional retail banking services and commercial lending, the Carson City office will administer taxrefund lending and private-label commercial credit card programs, said George W.

Haligowski, president and chief executive officer of ITLA.

In November, Imperial Capital and Household International announced that Imperial Capital will originate tax-refund loans and private-label credit card transactions which it will sell to Household International.

Haligowski said that the company's portfolio already includes some $60 million in loans to Nevada borrowers.

Imperial Capital also hopes the Carson City location will help establish it as a regional bank.

The company's other seven branch offices all are in California mostly in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.

The company's competitors in Carson City, who long have observed that the market has a lot of banks for a city its size, found the announcement surprising.

"At what point do we become over-banked in Carson City?" asked Jack Prescott, a senior vice president with U.S.

Bank's operations in northern Nevada.

Eleven banking companies currently compete for about $792.4 million in deposits in the Carson City market.

By comparison, the Reno market which well over five times larger with $4 billion in deposits has only 15 institutions in the competitive fray.

According to reports to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Well Fargo held the largest share of the Carson City market's deposits 25.4 percent as of June 30.

Imperial Capital Bank's move into Nevada came on the same day that the company began operating as a commercial bank under a California charter.

Previously, it had been chartered in California as an industrial bank.

ITLA's subsidiaries include the Lewis Horwitz Organization, a big lender to the film and television industry.

In the third quarter of 2002, ITLA earned $5.5 million, an increase of 27 percent over the the year-earlier figure.