Published December 2004

EverTrust offices make transition to KeyCenters

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

In November, EverTrust Bank signs across Snohomish County were replaced by another familiar name in the financial industry, KeyBank, putting the finishing touches on a $194.7 million merger that was first announced five months ago and completed in October.

The deal, in which Cleveland-based KeyCorp acquired Everett-based EverTrust Financial Group Inc., enables Key to “leapfrog” in both market reach and customer base to become the fourth-largest financial institution in the county in terms of deposits, said Jim Peoples, president of Key’s Seattle-Cascades District.

“We have noticed for a number of years, and we’ve been addressing it through new KeyCenters, that we had a gap in Snohomish County,” Peoples said. “When this opportunity came along, it allowed us to fill that gap.”

The sale, approved by EverTrust shareholders Oct. 11, added $770 million in assets to KeyCorp’s existing assets of $88 billion, 12 banking offices and two commercial mortgage loan production offices.

As part of the merger, two EverTrust locations will be closed and consolidated with nearby KeyCenters, Peoples said: a real estate and private banking loan office in downtown Seattle and a retail banking office in downtown Bellevue.

All of EverTrust’s retail offices in Snohomish County will remain open as KeyCenters, including the bank’s highly visible headquarters in the high-rise at 2707 Colby Ave. in downtown Everett. Key will move into that space and close its own downtown Everett office, Peoples said. The net result will give Key a total of 17 retail banking offices in the county.

“With that critical mass, we can now lever that into an even larger deposit base and a broadening loan base,” Peoples said.

For EverTrust customers, the mid-November transition was expected to proceed smoothly, with accounts automatically transferred to the Key system, Peoples said. Also, a unit of former EverTrust call center staff had been set up to answer telephone inquiries from former EverTrust customers.

“Key is preserving as many of the people within the former locations of EverTrust, the same people that customers were dealing with in the past. That keeps us connected within the community,” said Peoples, who oversees Key operations in a 12-county region as head of the Seattle-Cascades District.

Of the 163 people employed by EverTrust at the time of the merger — from executive management on down — more than 75 percent of them have remained on staff with Key, he said.

“For certain departments and folks, where there aren’t going to be positions for them, we try to find other positions in the Key organization for them,” Peoples said. “As for the executive administration of EverTrust, that was not an issue, because all of those involved had determined that if the merger went through, they would not continue on with the bank.”

Along with seeing many of the same faces staffing the new KeyCenters, former EverTrust customers can expect a number of new perks, including an online banking and bill-pay system that is rated one of the best in the country, Peoples said.

“It is the top three or four in terms of friendliness and functionality, and we’re committed as an organization to keep it that way,” he said.

Former EverTrust customers also will have access to more than 70 KeyCenters throughout the Seattle-Cascades area, a nationwide network of some 2,200 ATMs and wealth management services from Key’s McDonald Financial Group unit.

“In commercial lending, we bring an array of outstanding products to the table,” Peoples said, including cash-management programs and larger loan amounts to better serve middle-market businesses and larger corporations.

Key also plans to introduce or enhance a range of products, from small-business services for the commercial customer to home-equity loans for the retail consumer, he said.

As for further expansion in Snohomish County, Peoples said there is no doubt that the fast-growing area will continue to provide opportunity for Key.

“Growth in Snohomish County is something we know is on the radar screen for the future,” he said.

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