Banking On Character

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Taber joined the bank in 1987, a few years after a group of local businessmen met in a garage in Fair Oaks and decided to create a local bank. Since its inception, American River Bank has been squarely aimed at business -- the founders included a developer (Buzz Oates, who has since left the bank and founded another, Five Star Bank, see page 41), a dentist, a restaurateur, a car dealer, and the owner of a salvage yard. Assets have grown to $567 million, making it the fourth largest regional bank. 

The bank's chief executive is a youthful looking man, with close cropped hair and a forthright manner -- he's engaging, in can-do shirtsleeves and a tie. He has just finished a meeting about how the bank can better serve the Hispanic market -- Taber sees growth in the region as strong and is definitely aiming to take some of it.

Being publicly traded gives him deep pockets, but also requires public reporting and analyst briefings. On balance, he sees it as a blessing, an opportunity to forge tighter ties with his customers: "I tell everyone we do business with: We're making money off of you, so you should buy our shares and make some money off of us."

The chief executive's office is in a suite of offices in a mid-rise building at Zinfandel and White Rock. Not exactly nondescript, but by no means opulent, and in fact his office is small and cramped. His vision of business banking is driven by relationships.

"I want to know a business, walk around it, see what the atmosphere is like, who the key employees are," says Taber. "Then, when the owner tells me he is going to an auction over the weekend and might buy a new conveyor line, I can tell him not to worry about it. He can write a check and we'll take care of the paperwork on Monday. I know him, and his business, that's the difference between us and the big banks. Here you can call me up."

Taber is quick to point out that fully 50 percent of his loan portfolio is in business banking -- 25 percent in lines of credit and operating accounts and 25 percent in financing commercial buildings. The remainder is split between construction and land development, and commercial real-estate development. "No other bank in the region has that kind of business banking business," he adds proudly. The bank's primary business sectors are contractors of all kinds, both construction and government, where he believes his bank has a strong knowledge and experience base, and associations. "The government sector is going to carry this region through any softening of the economy in the next few years," he explains.

Taber is a sunny guy who sees the glass half full, perhaps because of the diversity of his client base. More than most other banks in the region, commercial real estate is not the biggest portion of his market. He adds that he sees little evidence of any slowdown in the local economy: "I stopped in for dinner at a new restaurant in El Dorado Hills last Friday, and the wait was more than an hour. That's my informal sign our local economy is still strong."

Five Star Bank

"Our core competency is really in commercial real estate," says James Beckwith, president of Five Star Bank. "We were founded by a bunch of developers -- Buzz Oates among others. They really know the game. Their areas of knowledge are land development in the valley up and down the state. We're opening a branch up in Redding, and we've financed some deals as far south as Fresno. But we're really a capital-centric bank."

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