Banking On Character

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 Smith is also a contrarian. When conventional wisdom says that supermarket bank branches -- all the rage a few years back -- don't work, Tri Counties begs to differ and is putting in as many as it can. Its latest? Branches in Wal-Mart stores.

"Look, it is all about convenience for our customers -- business customers," Smith says. "Who says that small-business people don't appreciate being able to do their banking on their terms, and at the times they are shopping? Those branches are open longer, cost less to build and staff, and provide visibility. I want to open more."

Smith is speaking from his office, a pleasant but by no means intimidating place. I ask him about ATMs and the networks that the bigger banks have in place: Isn't that a problem for a smaller regional bank? After all, Tri Counties was originally focused in the northern Central Valley. (The original three counties were Butte, Colusa and Sutter.)

The blue-collar bank president is having none of it. "I think ATM machines are old-fashioned," Smith says. "You can get cash back at the gas station or all sorts of places." Smith is pushing a series of seminars for business customers, helping them get their accounting online, showing them how to use remote deposit services, as well as other cash management and courier services to better run their operations.

The bank is in 23 Northern California counties, with 57 branches as far south as Bakersfield, and it is expanding. Tri Counties is not a big construction or agricultural lender -- both are in the single digits as a proportion of its loan portfolio. Real estate is a big part of its business, but so are business lines of credit and operating accounts.

Smith is making a huge push into the small-business sector. "It's no secret where the growth is coming over the next decade or two -- it is the Central Valley all along Hwy. 99 and Hwy. 5, and especially north of Sacramento," he says. "A lot of the people moving here are coming with home equity, and an entrepreneurial streak, afraid that Social Security or their pensions won't provide for them.

"We're looking for people who can dream big and will work hard to make it come true. I want to be their bank."

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