Letter to the Editor: Bank Activists Satisfied...For Now

[Editor's Note: Sonoma Patch would love your 300-word letters to the editor. Send them to Alexis.Fitts@Patch.com]

The Feb. 11 conversion date for Westamerica Bank to step back from the failed Sonoma Valley Bank has come and gone. After taking part in a Grassroots effort to demand accountability from our local banks, I’m convinced that awareness has been raised, through the overwhelming response from locals writing almost 100 complaint letters and published Letters to the Editor. We
believe our efforts were a success.

But continued pleas to Westamerica CEO/Chairman Payne and CRA Compliance Officer Scrip for an official Press Release on branch commitments went unanswered. Continued dialogue with FDIC National CRA Enforcement Officials and Consumer Affairs District Representatives will continue as sufficient data, requested under rights granted consumers in the Community Reinvestment Act.  But requests for copies of all the complaint letters and bank management responses have been wrongfully denied.

But on the whole, our efforts were successful. I wish to thank the countless army of concerned citizens who volunteered their time, wrote letters and voiced their opinions in our 3 bank branches.  We will continue to press for CRA performance and transparency in our Valley and should the threat [of bank closure, or fraud] escalate we will immediately reinstate our activist pleas.

I urge Sonomans to open deposit accounts, apply for loans and support Westamerica, particularly in the Springs and Glen Ellen branches, as profitable operations are the only assurance of the continued existence of these two locations. Thanks to the press for their coverage of our concerns, so that all Sonoman’s, Non-English speaking residents, might be provided with professional banking service at reasonable hours.

Ralph Hutchinson, Sonoma CA

Hutchinson is a former bank regulator.