NEW BANK GETS OFF TO GOOD START USING OLD-FASHIONED PRINCIPLES.

Byline: James Bemis Commentary

A little more than a year ago, California Oaks Bank opened its doors in Thousand Oaks with no accounts, no deposits, $5.7 million in assets and one very big idea - that customer service pays, even in the green eye-shade world of banking.

Twelve months later, there's much that's different: The bank has $30 million in assets, $26 million in deposits and more than 2,400 accounts. But its one big idea still hasn't changed - nor will it, if bank President Tony Kourounis has his way. His tiny bank is bucking the trend toward megabanks by remembering what some big banks have long forgotten: their customers' needs.

Kourounis has seen banking consolidation from the inside. He managed the Bank of the Oaks for nearly nine years, during which time First Interstate Bank acquired it. After two years there, Wells Fargo acquired First Interstate. Tired of the Darwinian struggles facing big banks, Kourounis decided to try opening his own bank.

Taking Cal Oaks Bank from idea to reality took more than two years, with lots of pitfalls along the way. Finally, though, after raising almost $6 million in capital from 450 shareholders, the bank opened in February 1998.

Cal Oaks' goal is resurrecting the old-fashioned notion of community banking by having loan decisions made by bankers rooted locally, providing more customer service from tellers and actively participating in this area's civic affairs. Its shareholders are - pardon the pun - betting the bank that there's still room for this kind of community banking; room for the hometown banker who calls his customers by their first names and knows every one of their children; room for a financial institution providing the basic investment and loan products regular folks need and delivered as though people mattered; room for the local, the personal, the small.

This doesn't mean Cal Oaks Bank isn't innovative: It provides Internet banking, a youth center where children can play while parents do their banking and one very old idea - Christmas Club accounts - disguised as a new one. What it does mean is that for the bank's employees, customers are more than just numbers: They're friends, neighbors, nearby residents. They're people with dreams and, sometimes, people with financial problems - problems their bank can help solve.

This is a throwback to an older standard, one in which a person's work is guided by ideals, dedicated to a goal higher than mere material gain. Working becomes more than just getting a paycheck. It's a rewarding form of service to others and a way of improving life in one's community. While this isn't a new idea, it's still a powerful one.

The best part of Cal Oaks' first year, according to Kourounis, has been the community's reception to the new bank. It only took 120 days to complete the stock offering; Cal Oaks' $30 million in assets after 12 months is 50 percent more than projected; the bank expects to become profitable within the next year, much sooner than expected. Rather than claiming credit, though, Kourounis says these results ``validate the need for community banking.''

The tidal wave of consolidation sweeping the banking business doesn't threaten Cal Oaks. In fact, the bigger and more remote big banks become, the better Kourounis likes it. He recently told his shareholders that ``to the people responsible for the mergers and acquisitions, we continue to seek them out so that we can write them thank-you letters.''

That's because Cal Oaks Bank doesn't compete based on being the biggest, fastest or wealthiest. Instead, it concentrates on providing its clients with the best - the best accessibility, the best banking relationships, the best customer service. So far, it's working.

There's just one problem: Since Cal Oaks Bank's commitment to the virtues of being small is succeeding so well, what if one day it becomes one of those big banks? ``I hope,'' Kourounis says, ``we never get that big.''