Bank of the West is the fifth-largest general services bank headquartered in California.

Bank of the West is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas with two principal subsidiaries: Bank of the West in the Western United States, and First Hawaiian Bank in Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan.

• 1874: The Bank of the West began as Farmers National Gold Bank.
• 1879: All national banknotes became redeemable in gold or silver and the bank changed its name to First National Bank of San Jose.
• 1970: Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) established French Bank of California.
• 1970s: First National Bank of San Jose changed its name to Bank of the West.
• 1979: BNP bought Bank of the West and merged in French Bank of California.
• 1987: BW bought Bank of Los Gatos.
• 1990: BW bought Central Banking Systems.
• 1991: BW bought 30 branches in Northern California from failed Imperial Savings and Loan.
• 1992: BW bought Atlantic Financial Federal Savings Bank from the Resolution Trust Corporation.
• 1993: BW bought 15 branches in Northern California from Citibank.
• 1995: BW bought NorthBay Savings Bank.
• 1995: First Hawaiian (see below) established Pacific One Bank to hold 30 branches in Washington, Oregon and Idaho that it acquired from West One Bank.
• 1997: BW bought branches from Bank of America and Coast Federal Bank.
• 1998: BNP and First Hawaiian Inc., the parent of First Hawaiian Bank and Pacific One Bank, created a company under the BancWest Bancorp name to hold BW and First Hawaiian Bank, with BW absorbing Pacific One. The creation of BancWest Bancorp caused now BNP Paribas’ (BNPP) ownership of the holding company to fall to 45%. BNPP also agreed not to increase its ownership of the bank holding company before November 2001.
• 1999: BW bought Sierra West Bancorp. This transaction temporarily diluted BNPP’s ownership of the holding company to 42%.
• 2001: First Security Bancorp and Wells Fargo merged. To avoid antitrust issues, they sold First Securities’ branches in New Mexico and Wells Fargo’s branches in Nevada to BW.
• 2001: First Hawaiian Bank bought Union Bank of California’s branches in Guam and Saipan. First Hawaiian had established its first branch in Guam in 1970 and its first branch in Saipan in 1997. (Union Bank of California had established its branch in Guam in 1974.)
• May 2001: The independent directors of BancWest Bancorp established a Special Committee that then unanimously voted to accept BNPP’s offer to acquire the remaining 55% of BancWest Bancorp, making the holding company a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNPP.
• Dec 2001: BW bought United California Bank from UFJ Bank, of Japan.
• Mar 2004: BW agreed to buy USDC Corp, parent of Union Safe Deposit Bank. Earlier it announced the purchase of Community First Bankshares, a bank holding company that operates Community First National Bank, which has 155 offices in 12 states -- Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

External link

• Bank of the West