Seacoast Adds Branch in San Diego

Seacoast Commerce Bank (SCCB) said Thursday that it opened a second branch in the San Diego area and relocated its headquarters to that new branch.

The new location is in Rancho Bernardo and houses both the headquarters and back office operations that were formerly in Chula Vista. Seacoast's president and chief executive, Richard Sanborn, said the nine-year-old bank added the new location because it reached capacity at its other two locations in Chula Vista and Escondido.

The bank assets totaled $146.6 million at March 31, up 27% from the same period last year.

"Not only does this move allow us to consolidate all our operations into one location, which provides tremendous efficiencies, it also provides us almost double our original space at less cost," said Sanborn in a news release.

Seacoast also said that it was recognized as one of the nation's top performing banks by ICBA Independent Banker, the magazine for the Independent Community Bankers of America. The rankings were based on returns on equity and assets for 2011. In its asset class, Seacoast ranked 12th in ROA, at 1.7% and 15th in ROE, at 14.9%.