FRESNO, Calif., March 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Communities First Financial Corporation (OCTQX: CFST), parent of Fresno First Bank, today announced that after seventeen years of being known as “Fresno First Bank,” the Fresno Community Bank will be changing its name to “FFB Bank” (the “Bank”). In light of recent events involving certain regional banks, the Bank also announced it continues to maintain strong capital levels and healthy reserves.
“With the sudden failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, we want to underscore the importance of maintaining strong capitalization and diversified sources of funding,” said Steve Miller, FFB Bank President and CEO. “Our capital levels are solid, and we have been consistently profitable, evidenced by the last two years of record earnings. We navigated through a similar time from April 2020 to October 2020 following the PPP and Banks’ COVID Loan deferrals, which stabilized credit quality and Capital fears.” The following (unaudited) financial information is provided considering the recent industry events.
As of March 10, 2023:
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Total deposits have grown 4.2% to $1.127 billion from $1.081 billion at year-end 2022.
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Cash and cash equivalents total over $57.7 million and represent 4.5% of total assets.
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Total securities held to maturity total $3.5 million, or 0.27% of total assets.
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Total securities available for sale were $325.0 million with the negative mark of $24.2 million reflected in Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income (AOCI)
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Reliance on wholesale funding, which includes brokered deposits and overnight borrowing, decreased to $50 million from $84 million as of year-end.
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FFB Bank has no exposure to venture capital or cryptocurrency.
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No material changes in asset quality from year-end 2022.
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FFB Bank has $440 million in secured lines of credit and $91 million in unsecured lines of credit available.
“Considering the recent events in the banking sector and general market, we wanted to communicate clearly with our customers, shareholders, and key stakeholders about where our bank stands from a balance sheet and profit strength standpoint. Our team has been actively engaged with our customers since last week answering their questions/concerns about the recent bank failures and also explaining to them the difference between our bank’s strategy and why we are confident in our position. Because of the location of our core franchise versus where these failures took place, our team is seeing opportunity to gain new customers and talent to join our team.”
Mr. Miller continued, “Over the last 6 months our team has been working diligently on a strategic initiative to change our bank’s name in order for us to have a more relevant name in new markets we are exploring. This name change is taking place over the course of this…
Read More: Fresno First Bank Debuts New Name; Bank’s Capital Levels are Strong with Healthy
