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Customers Bancorp acquires $631M venture loan portfolio
Paula Wolf//June 20, 2023//
West Reading-based Customers Bancorp, through its principal subsidiary, Customers Bank, has acquired a $631 million venture banking loan portfolio from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at approximately 85% of book value.
Separate from the loan pool purchase, Customers also recruited 30 employees from the group that originated the loans to service them from seed stage through late stage.
The newly recruited team, expected to be onboard in the next few weeks, will give clients access to capital to grow from innovation to maturity. The addition of these employees creates venture banking client coverage for Customers Bank in Austin, Texas; Boston; Southern California; the Bay Area; Chicago; Denver; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; and Washington, D.C.
“We are excited to welcome our new clients and team members to Customers Bank, a forward-thinking bank with strong risk management,” Customers Bancorp Chairman and CEO Jay Sidhu said in a release. “This team has deep relationships with their clients over the past two decades. They will enhance our relationship-based banking model focused on serving all banking needs of our clients.”
The technology and life sciences portfolio will be combined with Customers’ Technology and Venture Capital Banking vertical based in Boston; the portfolio of capital call loans to venture capital firms will be combined with Customers’ capital call line portfolio in its Fund Finance group based in New York and Chicago.
Added Customers Bank President and CEO Sam Sidhu: “We are committed to following through on our stated goals of strengthening our deposit franchise, maintaining robust liquidity, moderating balance sheet growth, and improving our capital ratios and margins. … Consistent with our disciplined approach, we will not take concentration risk and believe this transaction will be an excellent addition to further diversify our business model.”
Customers Bancorp Inc. has over $21 billion in assets, making it one of the 100 largest bank holding companies in the U.S.
Paula Wolf is a freelance writer
