BEVERLY HILLS – Commercial lender Signature Bank, which had offices in Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Newport Beach and Ontario, was closed Sunday by the New York Department of Financial Services to protect depositors.
The department has appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to run the day-to-day operations of the bank. All depositors will be made whole, according to the department.
According to a press release in July 2020, the New York based bank announced its expansion to the West Coast with the hiring of banking veteran Judi Prejean who was a VP with Bank of the West.
Judi Prejean, will oversee the Bank’s West Coast growth and ongoing operations, was appointed to the post of Executive Director, West Coast Banking Operations, along with 45 professionals, spanning 15 private client banking teams.
Prejean, based in Warner Center, brings more than four decades of banking experience to her new role. Most recently, she was Senior Vice President and Business Banking Group Manager at Bank of the West in Los Angeles, where she spent nearly 30 years in roles of increasing responsibility. In her last position, she led business banking throughout California, working with small to mid-size businesses statewide, and managing nine banking teams. Colleagues she worked with there for 10+ years also joined Signature Bank.
Last year the bank announced its expansion into Nevada.
In a joint statement issued Sunday by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg announcing Yellen’s approval of actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of Santa Clara-based Silicon Valley Bank, also announced “a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank,” that fully protects all depositors.
All depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday. No losses associated with the closures of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by taxpayers, the statement said.
Signature Bank billed itself as “a full-service commercial bank with private client offices throughout the New York Metropolitan area, Connecticut, North Carolina and California” focusing “on serving the financial needs of privately owned businesses, their owners and senior managers.”
City News Service contributed to this report.
