Citizens Business Bank завершил слияние с Heritage Bank и вышел на активы более 21 млрд долларов

Citizens Business Bank is undergoing one of the biggest expansions in its history after completing its acquisition of Heritage Bank of Commerce in April, pushing its parent company above $20 billion in assets and giving the California business bank a much larger presence in the Bay Area. The latest development came Aug. 25, when the San Francisco Business Times published a report examining Citizens Business Bank’s strategy in the Bay Area and its relationship-focused approach to commercial banking. The expansion follows a series of significant developments in 2026, including the completion of the Heritage merger, second-quarter earnings, a new 15-million-share repurchase authorization and a change in the company’s board leadership. Citizens Business Bank now operates across California’s major economic centers Citizens Business Bank’s parent company, CVB Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: CVBF), said after its second-quarter results that the combined organization now operates in every major economic center of California. The Heritage transaction substantially increased Citizens’ presence in the Bay Area while preserving its broader California commercial-banking footprint. The company says it has more than 75 banking centers and three trust offices serving California. That makes the Heritage transaction more than a conventional branch expansion. It has changed the geographic profile and scale of Citizens Business Bank, which historically built its franchise around Southern California. The bank has said it intends to maintain its relationship-focused model as it expands across the state. Heritage Bank of Commerce merger closed April 17 The central event behind the bank’s 2026 growth was the merger with Heritage Commerce Corp., the parent company of Heritage Bank of Commerce. CVB Financial and Heritage announced their agreement in December 2025 in an all-stock transaction initially valued at approximately $811 million, based on CVB Financial’s closing share price on Dec. 16, 2025. The companies said the combination would strengthen Citizens’ presence in the Bay Area. Shareholders of both companies approved the transaction in March 2026. The merger was completed on April 17, 2026, according to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time of the closing, Citizens said the transaction would push total assets above $20 billion, while loans would rise to approximately $12 billion and deposits and customer repurchase agreements to approximately $17 billion. The company’s subsequent second-quarter results show how quickly the combined balance sheet grew. Assets reached $21.18 billion CVB Financial reported $21.18 billion in assets as of June 30, 2026. Second-quarter net income was $48.3 million, or 29 cents per diluted share. The company said its net interest margin increased to 3.72%. The results were affected by the Heritage transaction and the fact that the combined organization operated for only part of the quarter. Net interest income reached $162.4 million, up $44.6 million, or 37.8%, from the first quarter. The company attributed much of the increase to the Heritage acquisition and the resulting increase in interest-earning assets. Loans increased by $3.37 billion, or 39%, from the end of the first quarter, while deposits and customer repurchase agreements rose by $4.41 billion, or 35.5%, to $16.85 billion at June 30. Earnings fell, but the bank remained profitable The headline earnings figure requires some context. Second-quarter net income of $48.3 million was below the $51 million reported in the first quarter and the $50.6 million reported in the second quarter of 2025. Earnings per share declined to 29 cents from 38 cents in the first quarter and 37 cents a year earlier. The acquisition generated substantial expenses. CVB Financial reported $31.4 million in acquisition expenses and a $4.25 million provision for unfunded loan commitments during the quarter. The company’s adjusted efficiency ratio, excluding acquisition expenses and the provision for unfunded loan commitments, was 43.88%. The bank nevertheless reported its 197th consecutive quarter of profitability, a streak spanning more than 49 years. Credit quality is an area investors will watch The enlarged balance sheet also brings a larger loan portfolio and new credit exposures. CVB Financial said nonperforming loans increased by $10.5 million during the second quarter. The increase included 12 nonperforming commercial and industrial loans totaling $6.2 million, three nonperforming commercial real estate loans totaling $4.3 million and one nonperforming construction loan of $685,000. Classified loans increased by $26.7 million from the previous quarter, with $29.1 million of classified loans acquired through the Heritage merger. Those figures do not by themselves indicate a banking crisis, but they are among the metrics investors are likely to monitor as Citizens integrates Heritage’s loan book. Citizens authorized a 15 million-share buyback In June, CVB Financial’s board authorized the repurchase of up to 15 million shares of common stock. The new 2026 program replaced the company’s previous 2024 repurchase authorization. The company said the new authorization reflected its capital position and long-term shareholder-return strategy. During the second quarter, CVB Financial repurchased 241,034 shares at an average price of $21.06 per share, for an aggregate purchase price of $5.1 million. The authorization is significant because it comes only weeks after the Heritage transaction substantially increased the company’s size. Leadership changes at the bank Citizens Business Bank also changed board leadership in May. George A. Borba Jr. became chairman of the boards of CVB Financial and Citizens Business Bank following the company’s May 20 annual meeting. Former chairman Hal W. Oswalt became vice chairman. Oswalt had served as chairman since 2022. The company subsequently added another director, increasing the number of directors on the CVB Financial and Citizens Business Bank boards to 11. The leadership transition comes as the bank works through the integration of Heritage and manages a considerably larger California franchise. Citizens Business Bank continues dividend payments CVB Financial also maintained its long-running dividend record. The company announced a 20-cent-per-share quarterly cash dividend for the second quarter of 2026, marking its 147th consecutive quarterly cash dividend. For shareholders, the combination of the dividend and newly authorized share-repurchase program provides two mechanisms for returning capital while the company integrates the acquisition. Why Citizens Business Bank is attracting attention now The latest search interest around “Citizens Business Bank” appears to have a straightforward news component. The San Francisco Business Times published a new report on Aug. 25 examining Citizens Business Bank’s approach to the Bay Area market, while the company’s latest financial results and corporate announcements provide a broader backdrop. The timing is notable because the bank has just completed a transformational acquisition and is now operating at a scale materially larger than before. There is no indication in the latest company disclosures reviewed that Citizens Business Bank is facing a bank-failure or emergency liquidity event. The current story is principally about expansion, merger integration, financial performance and competition for commercial customers across California. What happens next The key test for Citizens Business Bank is no longer whether it can complete the Heritage acquisition. That transaction closed in April. The challenge is now to integrate the combined institution while converting its larger California footprint into sustainable loan and deposit growth. The second-quarter figures provide an early indication of the scale of the change: assets reached $21.18 billion, loans jumped 39% from the previous quarter and deposits plus customer repurchase agreements increased by more than $4.4 billion. At the same time, acquisition expenses weighed on earnings and some credit-quality measures moved higher. Citizens Business Bank therefore enters the second half of 2026 as a substantially larger California bank, with a stronger Bay Area presence and a new opportunity — and responsibility — to prove that the Heritage acquisition can translate scale into long-term profitability.