Company: MCHB
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form Type: 425
Source: 0001518715-25-000085
Chunk: 20

Company: Mechanics Bancorp
Filing Date: 2025-05-09
Form: 425
Chunk 20
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. Mark Mason Though there's some things to be done because currently Mechanics only offers Fannie, is that right? The mortgage? Right. So there's some work to be done to have. C.J. Johnson We're working on getting approvals to be able to do Ginnie, FHA, VA all that.

Mark Mason And Freddie. What are your plans for opening new retail locations? C.J. Johnson I think we're very judicious about it. We are about to open one in Palo Alto market, we've hired a lot of folks, mostly legacy First Republic folks in our wealth management division, typically around trust administration, but also some private bankers. And so we view that market as a very bright market for growth. We've got people in market that need a place to sit and that will be a de novo that starts here hopefully in the back half of the year. In general, we don't open many because we feel like it's more efficient to just acquire the market share versus try to grow it organically. It's very hard to open de novo and grow it successfully. We do spend a lot of time and effort with our facilities team - who I think is exceptional - trying to make sure -- and I spend a ton of time on this, Shanna, Tony as well. We want our branches to be located in the right spots. A lot, we've done some mergers and a lot of the banks we've bought have been around a long time, but sometimes you keep the branch in the same location and stuff moves away because we want to make sure as leases expire, maybe there's a better location. So we're not closing the branch that’s not delivering, we're going to put it in an A location versus a C location. And we've done that, I think at least with twelve Mechanics branches in the past couple years, three years, I'd say. So it's a very important process. It's a lot of expense. Every branch there's a fair amount of expense that goes into it, so we want to be making sure that expense is directed appropriately, put in a good location so our teammates can be successful. But I don’t see too many more de novos. Mark Mason Question on SBA lending. I understand the Mechanics of SBA lender where we are as well. What are your thoughts on growing that segment? C.J. Johnson I may let Tony comment on it, but I'll start and just say it's something we do. It requires a lot of