Plaza bank targets small businesses in Orange County

11/7/2011

As of June 30, Plaza Bank in Irvine, California, represented the Orange County bank with the highest loans-to-deposits ratio at 45.6 percent, the Orange County Register reports.

Plaza made $258.4 million in deposits, $117.7 million of which went toward small business loans.

This information, as well as the 19 other top Orange County-based financial institutions to loan to small businesses, was compiled by national small business loan advisor MultiFunding as part of its Call report. The company analyzed 7,000 U.S. banks and compared deposits to loans of less than $1 million.

"We are totally focused on small business lending, to manufacturers, distributors (and) professional services," Plaza chief executive Gene Galloway told the news source. "We don't do any construction lending or land development. We're very targeted."

The next four highest ratios behind Plaza included Irvine-based Pacific Enterprise Bank at 44.1 percent; Rancho Santa Margarita-based South County Bank at 24.3 percent; Newport Beach-based American Security Bank at 23.7 percent and Tustin-based Sunwest bank at 23.4 percent.

The news source notes in a separate article that JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo made the most federally guaranteed loans in the county, but commit much smaller portions of their deposits - 4.8 and 2.6 percent, respectively.