National banks dominate share of local market

Banking in the Boulder Valley has been about consolidation in recent years — just as it has been across the nation.

Only two local community banks now are based in Boulder County: Flatirons Bank in Boulder and Mile High Banks in Longmont. AMG National Trust Bank’s commercial banking headquarters also is in Boulder. AMG’s wealth-management headquarters is in Denver as is its parent holding company AMG National Corp.

The combining of FirstBank of Boulder and FirstBank of Longmont charters into FirstBank of Colorado in 2011 was one of the biggest bank stories of recent memory. The two local charters were combined with 24 other charters in the state to become part of Lakewood-based FirstBank of Colorado. The measure helps the bank become more efficient in meeting federal reporting requirements, officials said at the time.

Previous to that, FirstBank of Boulder had a 7.97 percent share of the market in 2011, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a federal institution that regulates and insures banks; FirstBank of Longmont had a 5.19 percent market share. The bank has nine branch locations altogether in the Boulder Valley.

National banks dominate the local market when it comes to market share.

Heavyweight Wells Fargo Bank tops the region with a 27 percent market share. JP Morgan Chase Bank follows at 15 percent; and Mile High Banks is at 8 percent.

Wells Fargo held $1.6 billion in deposits at its 14 locations as of June 30, 2011. No. 2 JPMorgan Chase saw $925 million in deposits for the same time period. Mile High Banks had $626 million in deposits.

The former FirstBank of Boulder and FirstBank of Longmont came in at No. 4 and No. 5 in terms of market share. They were followed by South Dakota-based Great Western Bank, with a 4.7 percent market share. Great Western bought 20 First Community Bank branches in Colorado in 2009, including 11 in the Boulder Valley: Three in Longmont, two each in Boulder, Louisville and Lafayette, and one each in Broomfield and Erie.

Finally, Colorado Community Bank entered the Boulder Valley market in 2010 with a branch in Longmont.

Total deposits for Boulder and Broomfield counties have been rising every year since 2005, reaching $6.7 billion as of June 30, 2011.

Credit unions also are gaining ground in the Boulder Valley. While the customer-owned financial institutions are not tracked by the FDIC, nine of them compete for customer deposits in Boulder and Broomfield counties, according to the Boulder County Business Report database.

Of those, Elevations Credit Union in Boulder is the largest, with more than $1.09 billion in assets. Elevations is followed by Premier Members Federal Credit Union in Boulder, with $392 million in assets, followed by Boulder Valley Credit Union in Boulder at No. 3 with $227 million in assets.

Credit unions report to the National Credit Union Administration, a federal agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. The NCUA also insures savings at federal and most state-chartered credit unions around the nation, with an insurance fund backed by the federal government.

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