In 1974, London-based Lloyds Bank Limited acquired the 94-branch First Western Bank and Trust Company from World Airways, Inc. of Oakland, California, at a price of US$115 million. The Delaware-registered holding company, Lloyds First Western Corporation, was formed to facilitate the purchase. In accordance with the Group's policy of non-participation in consortium banks, Lloyds Bank California relinquished its holding in London Interstate Bank in 1975. First Western, a state-chartered bank which traced its history back to 1808, had been owned by World Airways since 1908, when its assets were approximately $900 million. At the time of the acquisition by Lloyds Bank, it ranked eighth-largest among Californian banks with assets of $1.3 billion. Further expansion occurred in 1976, when Lloyds Bank California acquired First State Bank of Northern California, which had been formed in San Leandro in 1962, adding another four branches which were rapidly integrated to the network. During the course of 1977, Lloyds Bank California developed two programmes to expand its field of activities and add to the services offered to customers. It entered into the equipment leasing business to take advantage of the rapidly expanding volume of industrial equipment leasing which had occurred within the US and also completed preparations to establish a mortgage banking department, to engage in the growing residential mortgage market by making long-term mortgage loans to be sold to institutional investors and serviced by the Bank. The Bank opened its 100th branch office in 1979 and commenced work on a new computer and operations centre, designed to accommodate 900 staff, enabling the centralisation of many of its support functions. In order to meet the need of the local market, drive-up cashier tills were long incorporated into the design of many of its offices. This service was available at more than 50 per cent of branches, many of which had multiple lanes, with up to 40 per cent of the business at a branch conducted at a drive-up window. In 1979, Lloyds Bank California also installed its first online cash dispensers at branches in the San Francisco area.
1980s
Plans to enter the growing markets of San Jose in northern California and Newport Beach in the south finally materialised in 1980. In addition, several offices were re-located, including the northern California administrative headquarters in San Francisco. By the end of the year, a new 205,000-square-foot operations centre in the centre of the Los Angeles financial district was fully functional, reflecting the Bank's growing importance. The operations centre began automation, converting all systems to the IBM computer in 1981, and, by early 1982, the Bank's ATM network was doubled in capacity. Business was boosted by the Lloyds Privilege Banking programme in 1983, a package of revolving lines of credit, investment facilities and advice, pension and retirement savings plans, financial planning and trust services and real estate and home loans. Changes in banking regulations and advances in technology gave customers access to a whole range of financial products from a single source. Lloyds Bank California joined with 11 other financial companies in 1984, as founder members of the Star System ATM network and computerisation made possible a new personalised financial planning package for wealthy people. In 1985, Lloyds Bank announced its intention to dispose of the share capital of Lloyds Bank California, which had produced below-average returns for the Group, deciding to concentrate its resources in the USA on its successful and profitable corporate business, based in New York. Lloyds Bank California's 88 branches and $3 billion in assets was divested to Japanese-owned Golden State Sanwa Bank for a $263 million cash consideration in 1986, to form Sanwa Bank California. Sanwa Bank KK had established an agency in California in 1953 and a subsidiary in 1972. It acquired Charter Bank in 1973 and merged with Golden State Bank, one of the oldest financial institutions in California, in 1978. In 2001, Sanwa Bank California acquired Tokai Bank of California becoming United California Bank, before being merged into and subsequently operated as part of Bank of the West from 2002.
