Horizon Bank in Bellingham, Wash., will convert from a state savings bank to a state commercial charter, its parent said this week.
V. Lawrence Evans, the chairman and chief executive officer at the $933 million-asset Horizon Financial Corp., said that the bank's balance sheet has become more like that of a commercial bank in recent years and that switching charters was the next step in its evolution.
At yearend Horizon had $137 million of residential mortgages on its books, 43% less than two years earlier, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. statistics. Its total commercial, farm, and commercial real estate loans rose by nearly 82% in the same period, to $383 million.
The Washington Department of Financial Institutions must approve the charter conversion.
