Bank of Santa Clarita gains recognition as a community bank with personal service.

Entrepreneur Magazine features the Bank of Santa Clarita as one of the up-and-coming community banks, or baby banks, serving customers who prefer personal service to corporate food chains.

Started in 2004 with $14 million in assets, the Bank of Santa Clarita has reported made over $97 in loans since opening its doors. "We visit the customer. We’re into character. That’s different from the major banks, where it’s all based on numbers and credit scores," says President and CEO James Hicken.

According to their website, the Bank of Santa Clarita is "an independent community bank, engaged in a full range of business and personal banking services for small-to-medium size businesses, professionals, entrepreneurs and high-net worth clients".

Local banks like the Bank of Santa Clarita don’t have the assets to serve corporate giants, so they focus on entrepreneurial businesses that prefer the additional service that a local bank can provide. They also fill the gap left by all of the bank mergers in recent years, where customers are frustrated with the corporate management of their newly-merged banks.

Community banks are becoming more popular, with more than 1,000 springing up nationwide in the last seven years. Of those, 191 have opened in the last year.

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