John Maguire

John Maguire, executive vice president at Torrey Pines Bank, has the second longest tenure of any lender at the 4-year-old institution. He followed President Gary Cady to Torrey Pines in 2003, having worked with Cady at Bank of America and California Bank & Trust.

“I’ve worked with Gary most of my career, and getting involved in a local startup was something I found very attractive,” says Maguire.

These days, Maguire wears a variety of hats, with responsibility for branches, product distribution, operations, and sales strategy at Torrey Pines, which has raced to almost $700 million in assets in less than five years.

Torrey Pines Bank is part of the Western Alliance Bancorporation, a $4 billion bank holding company that includes banks in Arizona and Nevada. Its chairman, Robert Sarver, also owns the NBA’s Phoenix Suns.

Maguire has more than two decades in the industry, and part of his job is to develop the next generation of lenders. A shortage of qualified lenders who are familiar with the San Diego market is the bane of most banks, and Torrey Pines is no exception, Maguire says.

“We’ve taken a strategy to hire younger people and try to train them internally,” Maguire says. “We’ve had some success with that; it enables us to train younger people under our experienced bankers. All banks are up against this and you’re going to have to train people if you want to expand.”

Of course, in the current market banks are just as concerned about a shortage of borrowers as lenders. Maguire says Torrey Pines is fortunate in the quality of borrowers it has funded, and that its already conservative underwriting has helped the bank steer clear of problem loans.

“The market is tough for everybody, but our underwriting criteria always have been pretty conservative,” says Maguire. “We never originated subprime loans and didn’t get involved in condo conversions.”

Also, banks have learned the lessons from the last real estate debacle in the early ’90s, says Maguire.

“After RTC (Resolution Trust Corp.) days, developers have to come in with equity,” Maguire says. “Funding loans at 125 percent, that’s not our business. We want equity into a project and strong guarantees. It’s important to know who you’re doing business with and underwrite them accordingly.”

Maguire says the bank wants to add a branch a year to expand its regional footprint. “So in the next three to five years, we’re looking at three offices. We’re never going to have a branch on every corner, but if it’s the right people in the right areas, we’ll invest the brick and mortar to expand. We want to grow to be a billion-dollar bank.”

Though Maguire says he enjoys his current position, he may “eventually” entertain thoughts of moving up to president of a bank, should the opportunity arise.