Umpqua in Oregon to Close 27 Branches

Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) in Portland, Ore., will close 27 branches by the end of this year as part of its integration of Sterling Financial in Spokane, Wash.

"The decision to consolidate a limited of store locations was one that we considered carefully from the moment we first explored merging with Sterling," Ray Davis, Umpqua's chief executive, said in a press release Monday.

The closures will begin in September. Customer accounts will be automatically transferred to the nearest branch location. No additional closures are planned for this year, though "a number of stores are still under review for potential consolidation in 2015," the company said in its release.

The closures include 13 Umpqua and 14 Sterling branches, located across the $11.8 billion-asset company's operations. The list includes 13 branches in Washington, seven in Oregon and seven in California, an Umpqua spokeswoman said in an email.

Umpqua evaluated its branches on a variety of factors, including proximity to other offices, the spokeswoman said. The soon-to-be-closed banks are each located an average of 1.1 miles from another bank branch, she added.

Umpqua announced plans to acquire the $10.2 billion-asset Sterling in September, in one of the biggest bank mergers of that year. The deal, which gave Umpqua a network of nearly 400 branches, was completed in April.

Umpqua has expanded its business along the Pacific Coast in recent years. The company last year announced plans to buy Financial Pacific Holding, a commercial leasing firm in Federal Way, Wash.

It expanded in California the previous year with the purchase of $322 million-asset Circle Bancorp in Novato, Calif., which had six branches. Umpqua also opened an agricultural lending office the same year in Templeton, located along the state's central coast.

Separately, Banner Corp. (BANR) announced Monday that it had completed its purchase of six Umpqua branches in Oregon in conjunction with Umpqua's acquisition of Sterling. Banner also obtained $211 million in deposits and $83 million in loans and related assets in the deal.