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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Financial Services Jobs Rebound Following Recession Lull

Employment in the financial services sector is on the rebound from the Great Recession, and a handful of the small local banks reflect that trend.

Judging from state employment figures, however, the employment level is not back to pre-recession levels.

“We are carefully and very deliberately adding staff,” reported Darryll Getzlaff, senior vice president and director of human resources for Carmel Valley-based Torrey Pines Bank.

University City-based Silvergate Bank has grown organically, said CEO Alan Lane, adding staff by opening new branches and getting into new lines of business.

While the state Employment Development Department does not report statistics for the number of banking jobs in the state, it does report statistics for a broad category called “financial activities.”

The EDD says San Diego County had 68,600 employees engaged in financial activities in September, the most recent month that data is available.

That is a 2 percent increase from the same month in 2011, when there were 67,200 people employed in financial activities.

However, the latest number is down 13.5 percent from September 2007, when there were 79,300 people employed in the same field. The Great Recession began in December of 2007.

“When I got here in 2008 we had 38 employees,” said Silvergate Bank’s Lane. “We are up around 90 as we speak. … We’ve been growing since the financial meltdown.”

Hunkered Down

Silvergate was in a position to grow because it “hunkered down” during a time when other banks were lending in the mid-2000s. The bank’s leadership was skeptical of real estate values during those years, Lane said, and would not lend, sending borrowers to other banks. “Silvergate took a lot of criticism” for its position, the executive said.

In 2008, “Silvergate was looking pretty solid,” he said.

The bank raised roughly $2.5 million in January 2009 — “Nobody was raising capital in early 2009,” Lane said — and $14 million in December 2011. Lane was an investor in both rounds.

Silvergate’s local deposits grew 101 percent from June 30, 2011 to $315.7 million on June 30 of this year, giving it the No. 4 spot on the San Diego Business Journal’s List of Largest Local Banks. The bank had assets of $560.5 million on June 30. Silvergate has five San Diego County locations and a branch in the high desert town of Lancaster.

Torrey Pines Bank, which is part of Phoenix-based Western Alliance Bancorp, has the No. 3 spot on the Business Journal list, with local deposits of $1.22 billion on June 30 — up 16.5 percent from the same time one year ago. It has assets of $1.9 billion.

“We have been fortunate to grow top line and bottom line” and to grow staff along with it, said Getzlaff, the bank’s senior vice president.

Executives at Torrey Pines Bank say the business currently has 175 employees in San Diego County, up from 162 employees this time last year, and up from 128 employees in November 2008.

Continues to Hire

Torrey Pines has seven San Diego County locations. It also has branches in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. Statewide, Torrey Pines Bank employs 240 people, up from 210 people this time last year.

And the bank continues to hire.

“We are always looking for quality relationship managers,” said Crystal Sargent, senior vice president and director of marketing.

Torrey Pines Bank has grown its loan portfolio by 42 percent between the third quarters of 2010 and 2012, to $1.4 billion, Sargent said.

California Bank & Trust — the No. 1 community bank on the Business Journal list with $2.72 billion in local deposits as of June 30 — says it has hired 36 employees for its San Diego operations since Jan. 1. Several were newly graduated finance experts, said Bernie Winans, senior vice president and regional manager.

The subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation has 588 employees and nearly 25 branches and support centers in San Diego County. Statewide, it has 1,700 employees and 102 locations.

The business continues to look for strong commercial bankers, Winans said.

Wells Fargo has 40 open positions in San Diego County, reported spokeswoman Amy Injaian. The jobs include mortgage positions such as loan administration managers, private mortgage bankers and loan documentation specialists. It’s also hiring personal bankers, tellers, business acquisition consultants and security guards.

As of Oct. 31, Wells Fargo had a San Diego head count of 3,241, up from 3,213 at the same time last year.

At the same time in 2007, Wells had 2,725 employees in San Diego.

Phil Blair, executive officer with the local Manpower job placement service, says the financial services industry currently has a demand for mortgage specialists. “They’re rewriting so many mortgages,” he said.

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