Steve Espino

Steve Espino’s career track has run parallel to the development of Downtown. Espino began his banking career as a credit trainee for Bank of California, and lived Downtown during the early years of his marriage when, he recalls, the scene was confined to Horton Plaza and Croce’s.

Today, Espino is the senior lending officer for Security Business Bank of San Diego, one of the leaders in the Downtown banking renaissance. Security Business has grown to about $117 million in assets in less than four years, and is doing so profitably with a return on assets north of 2 percent. An ROA of 1 percent is generally considered the mark of a well-run bank.

In addition to heading up the bank’s sales and marketing, Espino sits on the loan approval committee with Security Business CEO Paul Rodeno and Chief Credit Officer Gail Jensen-Bigknife. The triumvirate works well, Espino says, “because of the different expertise we bring to the committee. Gail is a real estate lender, whereas my background is in commercial lending, and Paul was in the past a chief credit officer.”

In a market where competition is increasing in the form of de novo community banks, the bank must expand its loan portfolio while maintaining credit quality. “We’ve been fortunate in that the majority of people we bank have some relationship with the management team or stockholders,” Espino explains. “I started out working for Chris Skillern at what is now California Bank & Trust, one of the better credit guys. You can’t jeopardize credit quality. That’s the one thing that will bring down a bank so you must stay true to your criteria.”

Security Business is in the midst of expanding its regional footprint, opening a loan production office in Irvine in December. Its new Carlsbad branch was slated for a late January opening.

As part of the Security Business senior decision-making team, Espino says he’s thought about one day being a bank president or CEO. “That may be in the cards some day,” he says, “but right now I’m really enjoying what I’m doing here.”