one cal q3 2008 report

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Ours does. Member FDIC EQUAL HOUSING LENDER Does your bank empower your community? OneCalifornia Community Development Banking Report }2008 Q3 TM B A N K

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Page 1: One Cal Q3 2008 Report

Ours does.

Member FDIC EQUAL HOUSING LENDER

Does your bank empoweryour community?

OneCalifornia Community Development Banking Report }2008 Q3

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B A N K

Page 2: One Cal Q3 2008 Report

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We asked the women featured in this report how OneCal empowers community.

“It saves lives. Literally,” Dr. Davida Coady says. As Executive Director of Options Recovery Services, Davida approached four brokers for fi-nancing to keep a building, but was refused. A friend suggested a new bank that she’d heard would lend to nonprofits, so Davida and she drove around until they found it at 1438 Webster Street in downtown Oakland. “There were nice work stations, but no people,” Davida says. “Finally someone appeared, and the rest is history.”

OneCalifornia had just opened its doors as a community development Bank and Foundation. The Oakland location is critical to the Bank’s mission of improving economic opportunity by offering fair and open access to all individuals, business owners and nonprofits in need of financial services. OneCal builds trust by listening, giving personal service and using the best technologies and products to help the expanding OneCal family of Bank depositors and bor-rowers and Foundation program participants.

OneCal’s Lisa Zuffi worked with Davida to refi-nance three of five apartment buildings, enabling the nonprofit to keep 16 men housed at 1020 59th Street in Berkeley and continue their recovery. The year-long residential program empowers participants to disengage from addiction and crime. Neighborhoods benefit, too. With a sense of pride, men in the pro-gram are doing yard work and building fences. Land-lords of neighboring residences are coming around, asking for graduates to be tenants. The 1020 build-ing had been a crack house for 30 years.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” Davida says. “Our housing is running a profit for the program.” Options Recovery operates day treatment re-entry programs and a clinic in downtown Berkeley, as well as the res-idential program, where men and women—addicts, alcoholics, felons, mentally ill, homeless—learn to live clean, sober and productive lives.

uEleven miles away in Oakland, the Oral Lee Brown Foundation empowers children toward their own meaningful lives. Born into poverty in Mis-sissippi, Oral Lee Brown put herself through the University of San Francisco while raising a fam-ily and working. In 1987, a chance encounter with a little girl in East Oakland led Oral to the local school where she saw a need and filled it: she committed to sending an entire first grade class to college. Earning $45,000 a year at the time, Oral deposited $10,000 into a trust account and created the Foundation.

Every four years, she starts a new group of twen-ty or more children on the road to college gradua-tion. Along the way, they study math, science and computers in Saturday classes taught by volunteer teachers at the Foundation offices. Parents, coun-selors, teachers and ministers recommend the chil-dren, who generally come from low-income families in which no one has gone to college.

“The earlier I can reach them, the greater impact we have,” Oral Lee says. “The kids may change their

career goals twenty times—doctors, lawyers, police, teachers—before they go to college, but the impor-tant thing is to believe they are going.” She thinks parents would do better if they knew better. She coaches them toward their children’s success, say-ing: “Don’t ever use the word if. Say when you go to college. Forget about if. I’m not going to spend 12 years working for you if you say if.”

Oral Lee invests securely, putting all Oral Lee Brown Foundation funds into CDs and treasury notes. “It’s these kids’ future. I can’t play with it.” She has opened a large Certificate of Deposit at OneCal. This is her first relationship with community devel-opment banking, and she appreciates the personal attention she receives.

Her next dream is to start a boarding school. “If we truly want to save our students, we have to get them out of the environment they’re in to where they’re not fearful of a bullet coming through the window.” Her school would be located outside the city and would guarantee each child a college edu-cation. “This world would be so great if everyone helped. It’s not that hard. I’ve done it, and I’ve never missed a meal.” Oral Lee laughs. “Maybe I should!”

uEarly in her career, Njambi Mungai often went to her mother’s to eat or skipped a meal rather than miss a bill payment, and her diligence earned her good credit. She parlayed her experience in sales and consulting into her own business, JR Lester & Associates, Ltd. Through the Ready for Takeoff program for women-owned minority businesses, she earned an opportunity to run concessions at the Oakland Airport.

Now twelve years later with 37 employees, Njambi has an established See’s Candies business at the airport along with a new Auntie Annie’s Pretzels franchise, financed with a small business loan through OneCal Bank. She also has See’s retail concessions at the Embarcadero in San Francisco and ventures begun with other airports.

“If you see it, it becomes,” Njambi says. She’s a savvy businesswoman with “wildest dreams” of growing sales to $50 million, but with a realistic out-look to anchor her business in airport markets.

Njambi has become an advocate for the bank. “Jeff [Cheung] and Francine [Boards] really do listen to your dream, to what you want to achieve. They are right there helping you with your vision. A number of institutions weren’t interested in hearing about it,” she says. “The small business owner has to jump through many hoops. All my assets were tied up in my business. OneCal helped me get past the point where I was stuck. They were tremendous in assisting me to work things out so that I could get financing. I needed that little piece of help. I’m so grateful.” Through OneCal, she has a Norcal Small Business State Guarantee loan.

Njambi is not worried about the economic down-turn. “I’m an optimist. The glass is half full, and I’m keeping my head above water.”

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BANKING ON ONE SUCCESS

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Dr. Davida Coady Executive DirectorOptions Recovery Services

Oral Lee BrownFounder & CEOOral Lee Brown Foundation

Njambi MungaiOwner, President & CEOJR Lester & Associates

WHAT DOES ONECAL DO? “IT SAVES LIVES. LITERALLY.” Davida Coady

Page 3: One Cal Q3 2008 Report

uKathy Chao believes it can be done. As Executive Director of Lao Family Community Development, Inc., she came to OneCal seek-ing a real estate loan to acquire an office building for her organization in Oakland’s San Antonio area. The Bank became a lender, along with The Northern California Community Loan Fund (OneCal’s first partnership with NCCLF). Lao Family will occupy 10,000 square feet and lease the remaining 20,000 to nonprofits and small businesses aligned with Lao Family’s mission, which is to help low-income peo-ple, whether refugee, immigrants or American citi-

to advancing financial fitness,” The Unity Council’s CEO, Gilda Gonzales, says. Early on, her organization pro-vided space and participants for a focus group to help OneCal identify banking needs of women in The Unity Council programs. The relationship continues with a partnership in OneCal Foundation’s foreclosure prevention project—the Community Homeownership Fund (CHF)—and in savings accounts at the Bank for first-time home buyers in The Unity Council’s programs.

“People must prepare themselves and their families for home ownership and retirement, but in changing times, financial fitness is a notion that’s lost in the communities we serve,” Gilda says. “Some people who went against our recommendations, who ventured into fancy complicated adjustable mort-gages, are going through foreclosures. It’s not good news, but it’s validating to our program. 90% of the people in the Financial Fitness program haven’t had any financial literacy. We get them to the place where they understand clear-ly what they need to do to move for-ward, whether to buy a home or keep their home.”

In one Financial Fitness class, par-ticipants make papier mâché piggy banks. “At first, people ask ‘Why are we doing this?’” Gilda says. “But they get into it. There’s a sense of pride in the making and in taking control. The key is to raise awareness: ‘What do I have in savings? What choices am I making?’ It becomes apparent what they can spend.” The piggy banks are symbolic. Participants open actual bank accounts, such as IDA* or regular savings at OneCal. “The whole family must commit to financial fitness. We’re reaching down as far as we can go, en-couraging young people to come with their parents.”

Gilda sees many people who were prepared to buy a home now unable

Gilda GonzalesCEOThe Unity Council

Kathy ChaoExective DirectorLao Family Community Development, Inc.

Kat Taylor Co-founderOneCalifornia

zens, achieve social and economic self-sufficiency. The new building will be a one-stop resource center. Lao Family is reaching out to supporters, clients and community with a capital campaign.

Begun as a resource for Southeast Asian refugees, Lao Family now serves more than 10,600 people a year from 30 nations across the world. The staff speaks 15 languages; 45% of their cli-entele is Asian.

The economic downturn hasn’t de-terred her vision. She wants her clients to develop solid relationships with a bank that has their secure financial fu-ture at heart. “Many immigrants didn’t trust banks in their home countries. In America, some began to rely on the larger brand names, only to be scared away by recent failures and mergers. Because of that they may be afraid to put money in smaller community banks. They don’t know the branding, and may think small is less secure.”

She anticipates a long-term rela-tionship with OneCal. “We’re starting with this loan, getting to know each oth-er. The process with OneCal was easy and quick—not a lengthy loan review as some banks have. I was able to speak with the decision maker and come up with mutually agreeable terms.”

Kathy envisions a financial services hub in the new building. “For 30 blocks there are plenty of payday lenders but no financial institutions. We’d like to see a bank here with a mission similar to ours. I’m interested in exploring the possibility of OneCal’s participation.”

uIn neighboring Fruitvale, The Unity Council implements and man-ages programs addressing economic, social and physical development for families. It empowers its clients to make sound financial decisions through courses in English and Spanish, semi-nars and one-on-one sessions.

“Like OneCal, we are committed

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The word optimist only begins to describe the attributes of Kat Taylor, but she deflects compli-ments. As a co-founder of OneCalifornia and mem-ber of the Board of Directors, she seldom takes center stage other than to sing acapella songs of praise about banking, friends or family to any group who’ll listen, belting out original lyrics as occasions demand.

“I want to be part of a just society,” Kat says, when asked about her role in founding OneCal. She’s in her car between meetings. “No matter how people start out, they deserve to have access to economic opportunity and mobility.” Kat and her husband, Tom Steyer, invested $22.5 million to start OneCal Bank and established OneCal Foundation to own the Bank. They will take no repayment or profit.

More than a year ago she began addressing the subprime crisis. “As we are now seeing, any bank in the end is dependent upon the health of the whole banking system. Some banks lost sight of that, choosing to run the risk of sinking their customers through exotic mortgage products or high and un-fair transactional fees on the theory that there would always be more customers to exploit. OneCal Bank gets it that our customers’ health is our health.”

She’s an advocate for financial literacy. “We have choices: to consume, invest or save money. As indi-viduals and as a country, if we don’t save more, we can’t invest more and we won’t have enough pro-ductivity, jobs or wealth in the future.” Her insights come from her Harvard undergrad and Stanford JD/MBA education and from roles with philanthropic ventures and nonprofits in the Bay Area, including an environmental education ranch in Pescadero, the Insight Prison Project in San Quentin and the Tom-Kat Foundation in San Francisco.

Kat notes that in an economic downturn banks tend to stop funneling money to businesses. “It makes sense in the short run and for the individual player, but it sabotages the system upon which we all depend.” She is about to go out of cellular range. “We entered banking at an extraordinary time. We are the good ship Minnow on stormy seas. But our mission insists that we lend with proper underwrit-ing and in ways that support community growth. Credit is a powerful tool in the economy and we must extend it responsibly. In these times, we need to support trickle up economics and be part of the optimism. Banking is highly psychological—we have to believe it can be done in order for it to be done.”

“WE HAVE TO BELIEVE IT CAN BE DONE IN ORDER FOR IT TO BE DONE.” Kat Taylor

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to due to lending pullbacks. She and her co-work-ers have taken voluntary pay reductions to help the nonprofit weather the downturn. “These efforts are galvanizing. It’s not just a job—it’s a mission and a service. OneCal gets that. They are an instrument by which that gets played out.”

“We’re looking for more banks to meet us at ground level, to face issues that are unseen and un-heard. We want to address the cash economy preva-lent with immigrant day workers, who become tar-gets of crime. We want people to be banked with the right people so that their money is secure.” She val-ues her OneCal relationships. “Jeff [Cheung], Russ [Haycock] and Sal [Salvador Menjívar] are my bank-ing friends. We see each other often at roundabouts throughout the community. With them, you’re a member of a community, the OneCal family.”

uCarol Galante, President of BRIDGE Housing Corporation, is partnering with OneCal Foundation’s foreclosure prevention project, CHF. “It’s great that OneCal early on said ‘We’re small, but we should be able to do something here.’” BRIDGE creates high-quality, affordable homes for working families and seniors. It’s the leading affordable hous-ing developer in California. Carol works with Hous-ing Partnership Network to find banks and compare notes on what similar nonprofits are doing.

“We’re putting our homeowners into fixed rate, good mortgages, but we see the problems all around.” BRIDGE is exploring the purchase of homes that have been vacated. Carol’s asking, “Can you save home owners that have subprimes? Can you rehab the home and save the neighborhoods, then find buyers to purchase with a better mortgage product?” There are no easy answers. “These loans have been sliced, diced and packaged into collateral obligations. It’s difficult to find out who is serving these, to find homeowners who are qualified to benefit from fore-closure prevention programs. With consolidation of banks, people have fewer and fewer options. It takes a personal touch. It’s a great role for OneCal.”

For her many roles, Carol wins national and local awards. In October, she was inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame. She is also a board member of OneCal Foundation, and helped select locally-owned small businesses for the Indie Awards, a program of Oakland Unwrapped! “The jurying process was fun. Later, we discovered that one of the business owners has a daughter who had interned in our office—that’s less than six degrees of separation!” She sees future connections. “Busi-ness owners may live in BRIDGE housing; BRIDGE home owners may frequent these businesses or bank at OneCal.”

She sees an easier argument now for going with a smaller bank. “Other banks are not doing it from the same heart and soul as OneCal. Kat and Tom [co-founders Taylor & Steyer] aren’t going to gain fi-nancially. OneCal has an overarching mission. It can tailor products and services. It’s a good model.”

u“My hope and expectation is that OneCal will provide a framework for finan-cial health,” says Viola Gonzales, a nonprofit executive on a self-imposed sabbatical, who is still engaged as a con-sultant and civic volunteer. She serves on the Board of the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth and on the Advi-sory Board of OneCal Bank. “The mission of the Bank is in tune with my work with children and families in low-income communities.”

Formerly Executive Director of the Latino Community Foundation, she’s held positions in nonprofits, business-es and government entities. Recently, she was on the community leadership award committee for the San Fran-cisco Foundation. “It was so much fun to decide on giving a handsome award to individuals who have done fantastic things for people in the community.”

Viola is committed to social change. “Consumer education is key to help-ing low-income communities. A lot of working poor don’t have tools to be fi-nancially literate. Teenagers need adults to talk to. They want to understand money—how to make it and what to do with it. People are concerned about credit. They don’t know who to trust. It’s a strange time now, and also a tremen-dous opportunity. It’s time for people to turn to small banks. There’s a sense of authenticity. Putting your accounts at OneCal is a show of confidence.”

uDr. Brenda Spriggs is confident in OneCal. “It empowers me to know there is a mission here for re-lationship banking, a mainstay of com-munity growth. When asked to join the board, I was excited that the bank would encourage a more sustainable community, would help develop infra-structure and decrease crime.

“To me, OneCal Bank is more than an institution; it’s a concept. It means:

Dr. Brenda SpriggsBoard of DirectorsOneCal Bank

Viola GonzalesAdvisory BoardOneCal Bank

Carol Galante PresidentBRIDGE Housing

We are ONE. We are related: interde-pendent and interrelated.”

Brenda was Chief of Rheumatology at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco and is now a Clinical Professor Emeri-tus at the University of California in San Francisco. Brenda has served on many boards in the Bay Area and as a delegate on international missions. She had a venture restoring Victorian prop-erties and is now developing a health care consultancy. “I would encourage anyone starting a new business to form a relationship with OneCal. You never come away empty-handed. You get tools to manage your financial goals. Everyone is treated the same—with attention, interest. If you have an idea that works, it will be very good for both parties—you & the Bank.”

uFarhana Huq, Founder and CEO of C.E.O. Women, is on a mis-sion to create economic opportunities for low-income immigrant and refu-gee women. In 2000, she funneled her compassion for the impoverished and her admiration for the entrepreneur-ial spirit into a nonprofit that teaches women communication skills, then provides intensive mentoring, coach-ing and access to capital needed to start a small business.

A neighbor of OneCal in downtown Oakland, C.E.O. Women holds its micro-equity initiative award ceremonies at the Bank. Recipients receive a $1500 startup grant from C.E.O. Women’s Women Connected Venture Fund and help from OneCal Bank with opening their business accounts.

Farhana hasn’t seen greater diffi-culty recently in getting new businesses up and running, but the economic downturn has affected some of her clients’ established ventures, such as a house-cleaning business that employs six.(“Farhana Huq continued” on p 5, col 2.)

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“WE’RE COMMITTED. IT’’S NOT JUST A JOB—IT’S A MISSON AND A SERVICE.” Gilda Gonzales

Page 5: One Cal Q3 2008 Report

“I ts impact will grow over time,” says Ex-ecutive Director of EBALDC (East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation), Lynette Lee. She is on OneCal Bank’s Advisory Board. “OneCal can’t be all things to all people, but it’s launched many things it wants to achieve. I see OneCal moving into some of the neighborhoods. Where we are—West Oakland—there are no banks at all and large parts of East Oakland have no banks. A bank presence would encourage healthy financial practices and alternatives to check cashing places and payday lending.”

EBALDC develops affordable housing and commu-nity facilities with integrated services focused on ten-ants and neighborhood residents. With 15 buildings in East Oakland, West Oakland, Emeryville, and San Pablo, EBALDC houses over 3000 occupants. If a tenant has trouble making rent, they sit down and make a sched-ule to catch up over time. “Our vacancy rate is generally 2%, but right now buildings are full.”

The rise in tenants is partly due to subprime de-faults and the lending crunch. “There are lots of homes for low-income buyers, but they can’t get loans. They may have saved 10% down, but now need 20%, unless they can get a subsidy. They may have a 650 FICO* score, but now need 720. We’re chasing underwriters, who keep shifting—L.A., Midwest. The process could be faster if the underwriting was done in-house, locally, where there is an understanding of the market.”

EBALDC helps people prepare for home ownership through financial literacy programs and IDA* accounts at OneCal Bank. “It’s a good time for financial literacy programs. When unemployment goes up, adult learn-ing classes grow tremendously. We have waiting lists for classes at Garfield elementary where we start with 5th and 6th graders. We develop depth through a three-tier program, which involved parents.” She notes the challenge of building banking trust among immigrants and refugees. “In these times, cash becomes king.”

uOrtensia Lopez, Executive Director of El Concilio of San Mateo County, is also Co-chair of Greenlining Institute, a multi-ethnic public policy ad-vocacy group and a member of the OneCal Bank Ad-visory Board. “Being on the Board is an opportunity to understand how a bank works. I bring my Greenlining experience to it, and learn things I can apply in other work.” El Concilio serves 10,000 people in San Mateo County by increasing leadership, education, employ-ment opportunities and access to health care. The chal-lenges are much the same as in Alameda County.

“There’s only one bank in East Palo Alto, and Red-wood City needs financial services. Banks have to be worth their promise and fulfill what they offer. We’ve had a rude awakening with foreclosure difficulties. Be-fore people just trusted. Now they don’t know who to trust. Especially if they’ve come from countries with government-run banks. For the Latino community, it’s about relationship building: ‘If I know you, I trust you.’ It’s empowering to reach deep into a cultural group, to meet people where they live, play and socialize, to spend time in parks and churches where people who work two or three jobs can be with extended family.”

Ortensia believes that a bank can empower people. “OneCal can do this. It can say: ‘After everything that’s happened, we’re still here.’ It’s focused on creating assets for low-income individuals. It’s there to help people in small businesses and help nonprofits manage their money. It can cut through red tape. A nonprofit is like a small business. If we find a way to generate rev-enue, we invest it back in services. It’s like a dividend to community.”

uJudge Gail Bereola has a can-do attitude that’s served her well in life and as a Judge of the Su-perior Court of California, County of Alameda and the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court in San Leandro. She develops innovative programs for the juvenile court and creates community partnerships to help youth lead productive lives. Her vision is being implemented in innovative pilot programs and models adapted for lo-cal use. She is devoted to seeing them take hold and become routine. Her vision includes restorative justice practices, an independent living skills program, truancy diversion and job training.

Gail sees economic empowerment as key to reha-bilitation. Case in point: The Fresh Start Café, set up with the help of probation at juvenile court, employs male minors from Camp Sweeney, a post-adjudication facility. The boys learn job skills and how to interact with the public. Minimum wages earned go into trust accounts for the boys; portions are used to pay any vic-tim restitution. The juvenile court also has an Emer-gency Medical Training program, which leads to EMT jobs with good pay. “A lot of minors in the community are unengaged,” Gail says. “Put them into some struc-ture, and they excel.”

Truancy underlies juvenile delinquency, as does family neglect. The court addresses child welfare, fos-ter care and group homes. Among all the programs and agencies that work to help youth, Gail sees great effort but little consistency or standardizing action. She in-terfaces with organizations and commissions and does educational and community outreach. Her vision of a convening force in the community includes OneCal.

“We need financial institutions that are committed to personal and community success. It’s important to put your money where your mouth is. OneCal offers all that and more. It is saying ‘I have your back. I share your desires and dreams to become financially success-ful. When you become successful, I become successful.’ OneCal will calm fears and let people know there’s a re-newed commitment to develop economic opportunity.”

Judge Gail BereolaSuperior CourtAlameda County

Ortensia LopezExecutive DirectorEl Concilio of San Mateo County

Lynette Lee Executive DirectorEBALDC

Farhana HuqFounder & CEOC.E.O. Women

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uFarhana Huq continued from page 4 “Historically, we’re all from immigrants. The immi-

grant’s contribution to entrepreneurship is significant,” Farhana says. “In the Bay Area, 127,000 women fit our profile. Their desire to start a business is a solution to the economic, social and environmental crises. These small businesses strengthen the local economy.”

*For Banking Tips & Terms go to Learn About Banking at www.OneCalBank.com.

“OTHER BANKS ARE NOT DOING IT FROM THE SAME HEART AND SOUL AS ONECAL.” Carol Galante

Page 6: One Cal Q3 2008 Report

“We’ve heard much talk in recent months about Wall Street and Main Street. There is a third street—Community Street. At OneCal we believe it’s critical to make credit available to qualified small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Players in these arenas help de-velop the community, which in turn sustains Main Street, where we all live and raise our families. In this quarterly report, we feature women with a desire for making a differ-ence and a dedication to community. For the contributions they have made and will continue to make, we are proud they are part of the OneCal family. We could fill pages with many more empowering women, and in future issues we will. Please join this stellar group by aligning your social values with how you bank. As a depositor or borrower with OneCal Bank, you automatically contribute to strengthening community. Please give me a call regarding community development projects. Thank you!”

Jeff CheungPresident & CEO, OneCalifornia Bank 510.550.8408 u [email protected]

It’s the right time for community development. Please join us in For-Benefit Banking.

©2008 OneCalifornia Bank

Banking on One Success at a TimeOneCalifornia Bank, FSB1438 Webster Street, Suite 100 Oakland CA 94612

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.For more information about the women, organizations and businesses featured in this report, please visit:

www.alameda.courts.ca.gov www.bridgehousing.comwww.ceowomen.orgwww.ebaldc.org www.el-concilio.com www.jrlonline.com www.laofamilynet.orgwww.onecalbank.comwww.onecalfoundation.orgwww.optionsrecovery.orgwww.oralleebrownfoundation.orgwww.unitycouncil.org

Bank with people who empower community.

TM

COMMUNITYC O N N E C T S

OneCalifornia Bank, FSBwww.OneCalBank.comPhone 510.550.8400

1438 Webster Street, Suite 100Oakland CA 94612

OneCalifornia Foundation www.OneCalFoundation.org

Phone 510.663.2253 1438 Webster Street, Suite 101

Oakland CA 94612 Salvador MenjívarExecutive Director

Bank Hours: M- Th 9 am - 4 pm

F 9am - 5 pm

OneCalifornia Bank, FSB, is a member FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender. The FDIC guarantees all traditional types of deposit accounts (checking, savings, trust, money market, CDs) up to $250,000 and guarantees IRAs up to $250,000. The basic deposit accounts insurance limit amount is $250,000 per depositor per insured bank. Certain retirement accounts (such as Individual Retirement Accounts [IRAs]) are insured up to $250,000 per depositor per insured bank. For customers with accounts in multiple categories at a single financial institution, FDIC coverage is based on the titling of the accounts and the category of accounts, not the number of accounts. Please note that the FDIC limit on traditional types of deposit accounts is temporary, through December 31, 2009.

Ask us about FDIC-insured deposits up to $50 million through CDARS®, the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service. CDARS® is a new, smart option for individuals, businesses and nonprofits who have large cash deposits and are seeking the convenience of working with one bank.