EverBank Opens Two Branches

EverBank isn’t trying to be on every corner, but it is setting up shop in a growing number of Los Angeles-area neighborhoods.

The Jacksonville-based lender, founded as an online bank nearly 30 years ago, opened two new branches this month as it continues to carve out a physical presence in L.A. County since it opened its first West Coast office in Encino in 2024. 

The bank now counts seven retail branches in the county, including its two new outposts in Santa Monica and Westlake Village, adding to the bank’s 41 locations nationwide spread across California, Florida and New York. 

“We see a really strategic and unique opportunity to leverage the very large deposit bases that sit within these communities,” said Patrick Nygren, senior vice president and head of retail banking at EverBank based in Thousand Oaks. 

EverBank, which as of Dec. 31 managed $46 billion in assets and $37 billion in deposits, has trenched into the L.A. market over the last two years in the hope that storefronts yield brand awareness and more deposit dollars. Last April, the bank acquired Sterling Bank & Trust’s 25 California-based branches.

Earning wallet share

Its new locations at 1630 Montana Ave. in Santa Monica and 971 S. Westlake Blvd. in Westlake Village serve to strengthen the bank’s position in the region by both deepening existing client relationships and creating new ones. 

“In the first 60 to 90 days, it’s really targeted, (and) we’re very specific on engaging our existing customer base to earn more wallet share,” Nygren said. “Then, we start to actively market for new clients.”

Digital and physical activations go hand in hand: The Encino launch two years ago led to a 20% lift in the bank’s digital growth in a 15-mile radius around the branch, Nygren said, and new locations are chosen for their concentrations of existing digital clients. 

“We have the efficiencies of a digital bank, and we then can bring in that physical location. Once we do that, we typically see two-and-a-half times the deposit growth with the existing customer base,” he said. 

Teams led by managers Ashley Shirinian in Santa Monica and Daniel Estrada in Westlake Village offer consumer and commercial banking products and services at the new locations. High-yield savings accounts are EverBank’s calling card, and the bank is confident its branch-light approach will let it keep rates competitive, Nygren said. 

“We’re known and committed to being a top rate payer in market,” he said. “We want to ensure that we are really investing in our clients as they’re investing in us.”