Long term debt rating attributed to strong capital, earnings and loan quality
SACRAMENTO, CA – River City Bank, Sacramento’s premier business bank and consistently one of the region’s fastest growing companies, has announced that S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has assigned it an investment grade long-term rating of BBB-. This rating reflects the bank’s strong credit performance in recent years, including through the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as its experienced management team, large loan loss reserve balances and low loan-to-value on its commercial real estate (CRE) loans. S&P’s outlook for the bank also underscores its stability, operational efficiency and solid earnings capacity for the next two years or more.
“We are excited to announce our investment grade rating from S&P Global, one of the undisputed leaders in credit ratings on the global stage,” said Steve Fleming, President and CEO of River City Bank. “River City Bank is now one of the only banks in the nation with an asset size under five billion dollars to have secured an investment grade rating from S&P.”
River City Bank has been named one of Sacramento Business Journal’s “50 Fastest Growing Companies” for five consecutive years. Over the past five years, it has experienced average annual compounded loan growth of 18 percent. In addition to commercial real estate loan growth, a significant portion of the bank’s growth has been due to the expansion of the bank’s Clean Energy Division across California.
In its release, S&P noted, “Overall asset quality has performed well in recent years–in fact, better than peers.’ The bank reported no nonperforming assets (NPAs) as of June 30, 2021, and it hasn’t had positive net charge-offs since 2015.”
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, River City Bank ranked 19th among the nation’s best-performing community banks with asset size between $3B and $10B in 2020. S&P Global Market Intelligence and S&P Global Ratings are separately managed divisions of S&P Global.
