Beneficial State Bank (formerly One PacificCoast Bank, FSB; and OneCalifornia Bank) is an

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

-based

community development bank Community development bank (CDB) or Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) is a development bank or credit union that focus on serving people who have been locked out of the traditional financial systems such as the unbanked or under ...

. The bank was founded in 2007 by billionaire philanthropist and former Presidential candidate

Tom Steyer Thomas Fahr Steyer (born June 27, 1957) is an American climate investor, businessman, hedge fund manager, philanthropist, environmentalist, and liberal activist. Steyer is the co-founder and co-chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, founder and f ...

and his wife Kat Taylor, to provide loans and banking services to individuals in low wealth communities, including entrepreneurs and existing businesses.

History

In June 2007, Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor founded a charitable foundation, OneCalifornia Foundation, with $22.5 million. As part of the foundation, they formed OneCalifornia Bank as a non-profit community bank. Their goal when founding the bank and foundation was to finance non-profit organizations, and ensure profits were reinvested in the community. In August 2010, the bank signed an agreement to acquire ShoreBank Pacific, a

Ilwaco, Washington Ilwaco ( ) is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 936 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1890, the city was home to the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company along the Long Beach Peninsula, with its core economy ba ...

-based community bank, and subsidiary of Shorebank Chicago. Together the merged banks would have $300 million in combined

assets In financial accountancy, financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value ...

and serve

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and Washington. As part of the acquisition, OneCalifornia Bank changed its name to One PacificCoast Bank. In January 2013, One PacificCoast Bancorp announced plans to acquire 90% of the stock of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

-based Albina Community Bank. In September, the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors approved One PacificCoast Bancorp and its parent One PacificCoast Foundation's request for One PacificCoast Bank, FSB and newly acquired Albina Community Bank to merge. The merger was completed in October. In July 2014, One PacificCoast Bank rebranded to become Beneficial State Bank, to reflect the bank's stated purpose to pursue "economic justice and environmental sustainability". The parent foundation was renamed to Beneficial State Foundation.

Products and services

Beneficial State Bank functions as a regulated financial institution, and provides

commercial banking A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

services to underserved small and medium-size businesses, nonprofits, affordable-housing developers, community facilities, as well as families and individuals in California, Washington State and Oregon. Beneficial State Bank's services and products available to individuals include money market accounts; and savings and checking accounts. Business services and products include checking accounts; money market accounts; online cash management; and commercial lending including lines of credit, term loans, commercial real estate loans and loans guaranteed by the Small Business Association. Beneficial State Bank also provides banking products and services for non-profit organizations, including checking and savings accounts; assistance bridging

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

campaigns; financing facilities and real estate; money market accounts; managing deposits and payments; and CDARS, the Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service, which allows qualified organizations to invest up to $50 million and be eligible for FDIC insurance on every dollar. The Bank lends to multiple nonprofit organizations and businesses, and helps them with cash management services intended to increase administrative and operational efficiency.

Operations

The bank maintains a

triple bottom line The triple bottom line (or otherwise noted as TBL or 3BL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and economic. Some organizations have adopted the TBL framework to evaluate their performance in a broader ...

, seeking to be profitable, promote environmental sustainability and expand economic opportunity in underserved communities. Banking services are integrated with financial literacy, technical assistance and business education provided by provided by Beneficial State Bank and Beneficial State Foundation. All of the non-voting economic shares of the Bank's holding company are held by the Beneficial State Foundation. 100% of the voting shares are held by Taylor and Steyer. Beneficial State Foundation is overseen by an independent board.

References

External sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beneficial State Bank Community banking Banks based in California Banks established in 2007 Companies based in Oakland, California 2007 establishments in California B Lab-certified corporations Cooperative banks in the United States Global Alliance for Banking on Values