Ed Fahlen

Union Bank of California is the fourth largest commercial bank in California and one of the 35 largest banks in the United States, but that’s not what makes Ed Fahlen glad he works there.

“We had the branch at 11th and Market for years and it’s just beginning to come into its own,” Fahlen says. The 23-year Union Bank veteran manages the East Village office in addition to the San Diego main at 1201 Fifth Ave. “We’re proud we held on to that office during the bad years because it’s going to be good now. We’re already seeing good deposits.

“The ballpark has dramatically changed Downtown. There is more entrepreneurial business Downtown now than in the last two decades.”

As the manager of the office in a building that once housed Union Bank’s predecessor, Southern California First National Bank and later California First Bank, Fahlen has worked his way up from a teller in New Mexico, through a series of administrative and managerial positions.

Early in his career, Fahlen was a collector, a “hard money outside repo guy,” and worked his way in to branch management with San Diego Trust in the mid-’70s. In 1981, Fahlen went to work for California First Bank, which acquired Union Bank and took its name. Fahlen has been with Union ever since.

“As the manager of the San Diego main, my day-to-day responsibility is to serve the public and to instill pride, leadership and responsibility with my staff,” Fahlen says. “I also get involved in lending for real estate or consumer lending. And there are people who come in and say, ‘I want to talk to the manager.’”

Before Fahlen had arrived at Union, Bob Peterson and Dick Silberman sold Southern California First National Bank to the Bank of Tokyo. Other SCFNB alumni include San Diego National Bank CEO Robert Horsman and Don Clague, a moving force behind the rise of Grossmont Bank and one-time manager of Union’s La Mesa office.

Silberman and Peterson had a building between First and Second avenues, just south of Beech Street in Downtown San Diego, and turned it into the bank’s check processing center. The property has since been relegated to “electronic support,” Fahlen says. San Diego’s check processing is handled in Los Angeles.

Fahlen says San Diego’s history with Union results in greater density of branches than in other parts of the state. “San Diego is the oldest, most established part of the bank,” he says. Also, San Diegan Ron Kendrick is a member of Union’s senior management as executive vice president of retail banking.

Fahlen says Union is not up for sale, though rumors were fed in the last few years by Mission Excel, an efficiency program designed to trim payroll. The departures fueled speculation that Bank of Tokyo may have been grooming Union for sale.