Monterey County Bank, county’s oldest locally owned bank, merging with SoCal investment firm.

The county’s oldest locally owned bank will soon be under non-local management after Monterey County Bank announced that it will merge with PCB Financial, an Orange County-based investment firm.

The deal, unveiled Monday, Oct. 2, will see the bank’s holding company, Northern California Bancorp, merged into PCB in a cash and stock transaction and become a wholly owned subsidiary of the investment firm. Financial details were not disclosed, with the merger expected to be finalized before the end of the year.

Founded in 1976, Monterey County Bank is a commercial bank primarily providing local small- and medium-sized businesses with SBA loans, merchant credit card services and other business banking offerings. The bank has branches in Monterey, Salinas, Carmel and Pacific Grove and held around $212 million in total assets as of June of this year, including nearly $180 million in deposits and more than $63 million in loans.

Charles Chrietzberg, the bank’s largest shareholder and its longtime chairman, president and CEO, says he will be stepping down from those roles as part of the merger, but will continue to be involved in the company as a PCB shareholder serving on an advisory board. The 82-year-old Chrietzberg, who has been involved with the bank for more than 35 years, says the time is right for him to step down and that the transaction will help Monterey County Bank grow its business in the future.

“We’re kind of limited right now due to the size of the bank,” Chrietzberg tells the Weekly. “We have this group willing to invest in the bank, keep it going and improve on what we’re doing.” He says PCB’s investment will allow Monterey County Bank to double its $5 million loan limit, and that the new investors are keen on investing in technology to enhance the bank’s online and mobile banking services. 

“I wanted to keep Monterey County Bank’s legacy alive and I thought the way to do it was to bring in new investors,” Chrietzberg adds, noting that the bank aims to maintain its position as the largest SBA lender in the county. “We do more restaurant loans than all of the other banks combined. We’ll continue doing what we did, plus we can do other things.”

PCB chairman Anand Gala describes his firm as a consortium of investors with backgrounds in banking, restaurants, automotive dealerships, real estate development and agriculture. Gala is the founder and managing partner of Costa Mesa-based investment firm Gala Capital Partners, whose holdings include restaurant chains Cicis Pizza, Mooyah Burgers and Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que, as well as various software companies. He says PCB was “formed for the sole purpose of getting involved in a community commercial bank” like Monterey County Bank.

“We’ve been actively looking to invest in and be involved in a financial institution for quite some time,” according to Gala. He says PCB plans to inject capital into Monterey County Bank “to allow it to operate the way it has and remain of service to its community, while also expanding the bank into new areas, offering additional services and products, and adding more technology features and solutions for its customers.”

“This is not an investment in which we expect to get in and out,” Gala added. “It’s one where we’re committed for decades to growing this bank in a safe and focused way.” He noted that he and his fellow investors are mostly “first- and second-generation immigrants and minorities,” and that PCB sees an opportunity to expand its services toward immigrant and minority entrepreneurs and business owners in the region.

Longer term, Gala says PCB hopes to grow Monterey County Bank’s presence and customer base across the Central Coast and potentially beyond to other parts of the state, while remaining focused on small businesses. In the meantime, he says the firm’s investment will help the bank to provide its customers with “the modern technology that they’ve maybe come to expect from other banking experiences.”

“We want to make sure we are offering remote deposits, mobile-phone capture of checks, the kinds of things people have come to expect,” Gala says.

He adds that PCB is “delighted” to keep Chrietzberg in the fold at Monterey County Bank as a major shareholder and advisory board member, and that the firm is currently weighing up potential successors to lead the bank’s day-to-day operations.

Update, Oct. 7: A previous version of this article misstated that Monterey County Bank does not offer consumer accounts. While the bank primarily serves businesses, it does offer consumer banking.