Our entrepreneurial spirit: then and now

In 1979, eight local business owners discovered they had a mutual problem: their banks couldn’t provide them with the business acumen they needed to make their companies prosper – whether it was advice on accounting or receivables or managing cash flow. Nor did their banks seem to have an inkling of what it meant to do business in the local economy. Being entrepreneurs, they decided to take matters into their own hands and opened Lacey Bank.

Today, 18 full service financial centers and approximately $1.2 billion in assets later, we’re known as Venture Bank – the name we adopted in 2003 to express the independent spirit that founded our bank, and that still guides it in everything we do.

Milestones:

1979 - Opened our first financial center, Lacey Bank.

1981 - Changed our name to First Community Bank to allow for expansion.

1983 - Opened our second branch on the east side of Olympia and formed our holding company, First Community Financial Group.

1987 - Added mortgage lending to our services.

1990 - Our Yelm and Tumwater financial centers opened.

1993 - Merged with Citizens First Bank in Grays Harbor, adding financial centers in Elma and Hoquiam.

1994 - Added a financial center in downtown Olympia.

1995 - Started welcoming our customers with fresh baked cookies and coffee in all of our financial centers. Remodeled and enlarged our Lacey Financial Center, and moved our administrative offices there. We also merged with Northwest Community Bank in Tacoma and opened a financial center in Centralia.

1996 - First Community Bank Investment Services, the bank’s investment services division, opened.

1997 - Acquired Prairie Security Bank, opened a financial center in Panorama City and acquired four financial centers from Wells Fargo Bank (located in: Montesano, Hoquiam, Toledo, and Winlock).

2002 - We acquired Harbor Bank, with two financial centers, in the Gig Harbor area which helped us greatly expand our Pierce County service area.

2003 - In May of 2003, we became Venture Bank. Extending far beyond a name change, the rebranding process became a corporate cultural phenomenon and a complete redesign of the bank’s image and financial centers. We continue to build our brand around the phrase “As Independent As You” and strive towards a higher set of standards than anyone is used to expecting from a bank. Our customer-staff relationship has been elevated to earn our customers trust and business for life.

2004 - Venture Bank opened its first financial center in King County in Kent. We also, in a strategic move to focus our growth along the interstate corridors, sold 7 of our most remote financial centers.

2005 - We continued our move northward with the purchase of Redmond National Bank. This purchase brought us two financial centers in Redmond as well as the return of Redmond President (and former Venture Bank CFO) Jim Arneson, who continues to serve as Venture Bank’s President and CEO.

2007 - In April 2007 Venture Bank moved into its new three-story administrative offices in DuPont, WA. We also increased our mortgage capabilities in Pierce County by hiring nearly all of the employees of a local office in Puyallup, which is currently our only free-standing mortgage office.

2008 - We consolidated our two Redmond locations into our Redmond Downtown financial center. Our Downtown facility offers customers more services and convenience thanks to their drive-up capabilities and ample off-street parking. We also celebrated the opening of our Woodinville financial center, our 3rd location in King County.