Independent Banker - May 2019 - 43

3 minutes with ...
" We're in growth mode. Our
focus is on continuing to build
out our branch network. "
-Khalid Acheckzai, Poppy Bank
Khalid Acheckzai, president
and CEO, Poppy Bank
Why does Poppy Bank perform so well?
Because of the vision that the board and I have put
in place: focusing on our clients, on our employees
and on the needs of the communities we serve.
For example, after the 2017 fires in Santa
More than $1 billion in assets
Rank Bank name
City
1 Cross River Bank
2 Live Oak Bank
3 First Financial Bank
4 Metro City Bank
5 Stearns Bank N. A.
6 Poppy Bank
7 Northpointe Bank
8 First Security Bank
Teaneck
State
NJ
Wilmington NC
El Dorado
Doraville
AR
GA
St. Cloud MN
Santa Rosa CA
Grand Rapids MI
Searcy
9 Citizens National Bank of Texas Waxahachie
10 Cache Valley Bank
Logan
11
Heartland Bank and Trust
Company
12 Choice Financial Group
13 Stockman Bank
14 Pedestal Bank
15 Amarillo National Bank
16 First American Bank
17 Centennial Bank
18 Woodforest National Bank
19
1st Security Bank of
Washington
20 Royal Business Bank
21 EagleBank
22
First National Bank of Fort
Smith
23 Pinnacle Bank
24
25
Gulf Coast Bank and Trust
Company
Green Dot Bank DBA Bonneville
Bank
Bloomington
Fargo
Miles City
Houma
Amarillo
Artesia
Conway
The
Woodlands
Mountlake
Terrace
AR
TX
UT
IL
ND
MT
LA
TX
NM
AR
TX
WA
Los Angeles CA
Bethesda MD
Fort Smith
Lincoln
New Orleans
Provo
AR
NE
LA
UT
3-yr average
ROA
3.10
3.07
2.89
2.82
2.51
2.40
2.16
2.12
2.04
2.04
1.97
1.95
1.92
1.89
1.87
1.87
1.85
1.82
1.81
1.80
1.79
1.79
1.78
1.78
1.77
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a writer in California.
independentbanker.org Q 43
Rosa, Calif., we took a step back to figure out
what the community needs. We came up with
a construction loan for people to rebuild their
homes, in which a
30-year mortgage
was already tied to it.
That eliminated the
multistep process
of taking out a
construction loan
and then having to
separately take out
permanent financing.
Just making small
adjustments like
these allows us to diff erentiate ourselves.
NEW ENTRANT
#6
Poppy Bank
Santa Rosa, Calif.
Assets: $1.9 billion
3-yr average ROA: 2.40%
poppy.bank
Do you specialize in any way?
We have a focus on commercial real estate
lending, construction lending, hospitality lending
and we also do SBA lending nationwide, which
gives us a much broader network across the
country and greatly boosts our profitability.
On the deposit side, all of our branches are
in California. Because we leverage technology
such as remote deposit capture for our business
customers and mobile banking for consumers,
we can have branches 15 to 20 miles apart. This
reduces costs by not having as many branches
and also greatly helps our profitability.
What are your future plans?
We're in growth mode. Our focus is on continuing
to build out our branch network. We've got
branches throughout the Bay Area, in Roseville,
near Sacramento, and one in Costa Mesa in Orange
County, and we're going to open two more branches
this year. We like to grow organically, so we have
no reason to acquire, but if a good opportunity
comes up, we wouldn't want to look past it.
http://www.independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - May 2019

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