PacWest Bancorp
PacWest Bancorp (Nasdaq: PACW) is a bank holding company based in Beverly Hills, California, with one wholly owned banking subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank. Pacific Western Bank has 69 full-service branches throughout California, one in Denver, Colorado, one in Durham, North Carolina, and several loan production offices across the country.[2] Pacific Western provides commercial banking services, including real estate, construction, and commercial loans, and deposit and treasury management services to small and medium-sized businesses.
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Type | Public |
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Nasdaq: PACW S&P 600 component | |
Industry | Banking Financial services |
Founded | 1999 |
Headquarters | |
Area served | California, Arizona, Utah, and Texas |
Key people | Matthew P. Wagner, CEO Mark Yung, COO |
Products | Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Mortgage loans, Venture debt |
Revenue | ![]() |
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Total assets | ![]() |
Total equity | ![]() |
Number of employees | 1,833 (2019) |
Website | www |

Pacific Western offers additional products and services under the brands of its business groups, CapitalSource and Square 1 Bank, now known as National Lending and Venture Banking groups, respectively. National Lending Group provides cash flow, asset-based, equipment and real estate loans and treasury management services to established middle-market businesses on a national basis. Venture Banking Group focuses on entrepreneurial businesses and their venture capital and private equity investors.
As of 2019, Pacific Western had $26 billion in assets and 69 locations in California, primarily in the southern and central parts of the state.[3] Pacific Western has primarily built by the acquisition of other banks.[4]
History
PacWest Bancorp was formerly known as First Community Bancorp. In 2005, First Community Bancorp acquired Glendora, California-based Foothill Independent Bancorp (Nasdaq: FOOT) for $238 million.[5] In 2006, First Community Bancorp combined the two banks it then owned, Pacific Western National Bank and First National Bank, renaming them the Pacific Western Bank.[6] In 2008, First Community Bancorp announced its plans to reincorporate in Delaware and change its name to PacWest Bancorp.[7]
Pacific Western Bank acquired the deposits and other assets of other banking institutions which failed during the financial crisis. In 2008, Pacific Western assumed the deposits and other assets of Security Pacific Bank of Los Angeles, CA.[8] In 2009, Pacific Western assumed the deposits and other assets of Affinity Bank, Ventura, CA.[9] In 2010, Pacific Western assumed the deposits and other assets of Los Padres Bank, Solvang, CA.[10]
In July 2013, PacWest announced it would acquire the commercial bank CapitalSource for around $2.29 billion.[11]
On March 2, 2015,[3] an $894 million merger was announced[4] with Square 1 Financial Inc., the parent company of Durham, North Carolina-based Square 1 Bank.[12] The bank started in 2005 grew to 13 locations and $3.1 billion in assets. The merger would result in Pacific Western becoming California's sixth largest publicly traded bank.[3]
On January 17, 2019, PacWest Bancorp decided to retire CapitalSource and Square 1 Bank brand names and renamed them with National Lending and Venture Banking groups. The bank recognized a $2.1 million write-off as retiring the Square 1 brand name.[13]
On February 17, 2023, PacWest Bancorp filed an 8-K with the SEC stating it would be laying off 200 employees from its wholly owned subsidiary, Civic Financial Services. The layoffs come after an abysmal fourth-quarter 2022 earnings, with delinquent loans seeing a sequential increase of 266%, mainly due to an increase in Civic delinquent loans. In addition, PacWest Bancorp recorded a $29 million impairment charge due to Civic. As of December 31, 2022, PacWest Bancorp holds over $3 billion worth of Civic sub-prime loans on its balance sheet. [14]
2023 banking crisis

Shares of the company dropped 37% in value on March 10, 2023 in response to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.[15] On March 13, share trading was halted after a fall of 52% on the day.[16] On May 3, following the collapse and eventual acquisition of First Republic Bank by JPMorgan Chase, shares fell 57% in after-hour trading after the bank announced it was considering "strategic options, including a sale." The bank had suffered a withdrawal of $6.7B worth of deposits up to March 20, but since then they had increased by $1.8B.[17][18] The stock tumbled 50.6% during the day of May 4 to a low of $3.37.[19] On May 11, PacWest stock was down as much as 33% after disclosing it had lost 9.5% of deposits the previous week on a wave of new pessimism surrounding the banking industry.[20]
See also
References
- "PacWest Bancorp 2021 Current Report" (PDF). cloudfront.net. 31 December 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- https://www.pacwest.com/about-us
- "Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Earning". Barron's. 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
- Reckard, E. Scott; Dave, Paresh (March 4, 2015). "PacWest Bancorp to buy tech lender Square 1 Financial". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- "First Community to Buy Glendora Bank". Los Angeles Times. 2005-12-16. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
- "First Community to Switch to State Charter". Los Angeles Times. 2006-08-09. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
- Kuehner-Hebert, Katie (2008-12-03). "Changes at San Diego's First Community". American Banker. Vol. 173, no. 49. Archived from the original on 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
- "Pacific Western Bank Acquires All the Deposits of Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, California" (Press release). Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). November 7, 2008. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
- "Pacific Western Bank, San Diego, California, Assumes All of the Deposits of Affinity Bank, Ventura, California" (Press release). Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). August 28, 2009. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
- "Pacific Western Bank, San Diego, California, Assumes All of the Deposits of Los Padres Bank, Solvang, California" (Press release). Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). August 20, 2010. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
- "Deals of the day -- mergers and acquisitions". Reuters. Reuters. 23 July 2013.
- "PacWest Bancorp buying financial services company Square 1 Financial for about $789M". Fox Business. Associated Press. March 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
- "Q4 2018 Earning".
- Mendoza, Candyd. "CIVIC Financial Services to lay off 200 employees, halts originations". www.mpamag.com. Mortgage Professionals America. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- Bradham, Breanna; Reyes, Max (10 March 2023). "First Republic Bank Sinks Amid Wider Selloff in Bank Stocks". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- Singh, Medha (13 March 2023). "First Republic dives as fresh financing fails to soothe deposit outflow fears". www.reuters.com. Reuters. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
- Min, Sarah. "PacWest falls more than 50% after hours on report bank is weighing sale". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
- Heeb, Gina. "Regional-Bank Shares Dive as Investors Fret About Contagion". WSJ. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
- Pound, Jesse. "Regional bank stocks continue to slide on Thursday with PacWest leading the way down 50%". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
- Fitzpatrick, Dan (11 May 2023). "PacWest stock plunges 23% after losing 9.5% of deposits last week". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 11 May 2023.