Torrey Pines Bank reported strong growth in the third quarter of this year, with increases in deposits, an increase in net income and substantial capacity to fund new business loans and lines of credit. The Bank is a leading local commercial bank with offices throughout the county, and is a subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporaton.

John Macquire

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In a tough economic climate for many banks, Torrey Pines Bank’s deposits grew $51 million—six percent—from the same quarter last year, with deposits up 63 percent, year-over-year. The bank’s deposits total $887 million; the year-to-date net income for the bank was $6.16 million, more than twice what it was for the same period last year.

President and COO John Macguire says the bank steered clear of financial problems because it underwrote loans “very conservatively. Two and a half to three years ago we started to exit from the construction loan market—these are loans to developers. We also stayed away from land loans, big development loans, which seemed risky. That isn’t our area of expertise. And we were not involved in sub-prime loans.”

In order to shore up its stable position, the bank “looked at the bottom five percent of our client base and tried to work them out of the bank or shore up our position as it related to these loans. And we focused on our core business—which is dealing with local business clients,”says Macquire.

Torrey Pines specializes in owner occupied commercial real estate loans, as well as small business loans. It was founded with $20 million in capital, a single office and seven employees in 2003. Today the bank has $1.089 billion in assets and seven offices throughout the county, employing 150 people.

It is also the “number-one community bank lender in San Diego with the '504 program' for the last five years,” says Macguire.

According to CDC Small Business, a nonprofit that aims to stimulate economic development by providing fixed-rate, low-down-payment commercial real estate loans to small businesses in California, Arizona and Nevada, the 504 program is one where the Small Business Association guarantees 40 percent of a small business’ loan. The borrower must come up with 10 percent down.

Another plus for Torrey Pines: the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio is 76 percent, which means “there is money to lend,” says Macguire. But that leads to its own challenges, namely, he says, finding qualified borrowers.