Pacific Capital Bancorp was a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

headquartered in

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coas ...

. It had 47

branches A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...

, all of which were in Southern California. It operated under the name Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. The company also operated Morton Capital Management and R.E. Wacker Associates,

investment advisory An Investment advisory, in financial/investment organizations, is the unit linking the investment professionals in the central asset management unit (Investment Research, Portfolio Management) to the relationship managers and/or to important clien ...

firms. In 2012, the company was acquired by

MUFG Union Bank MUFG Union Bank (stylized as UnionBank), is a nationally chartered full-service bank with 398 branches in California, Washington and Oregon which was wholly owned by MUFG Americas Holdings and has been acquired by U.S. Bancorp. Formerly known ...

History

The bank was founded as Santa Barbara National Bank on March 17, 1960. In 1998, Santa Barbara Bancorp acquired Pacific Capital Bancorp for $287.6 million in stock and changed its name to Pacific Capital Bancorp. In November 2008, the company received an investment of $180,634,000 from the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

as part of the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President G ...

(TARP). In January 2010, the company sold its Refund Anticipation Loan and Refund Transfer business to Santa Barbara Tax Products Group for $10 million. In April 2010,

Gerald J. Ford Gerald J. Ford (born 1944) is an American attorney and businessman.

bought a 91% stake in the company for $500 million. On December 1, 2012, the bank was acquired by

for $1.5 billion. As of June 2019 the bank still owes taxpayers and the US Government $26,561,211 from the TARP bailout.

References

{{Reflist, 1 Banks established in 1960 1960 establishments in California 2012 disestablishments in California Defunct banks of the United States