ORANGE COUNTY
Monarch Bancorp, the holding company for Monarch Bank in Laguna Niguel, has hired former San Diego banker E. Lynn Caswell as president and chief executive officer of the company and the bank to replace another former San Diego banker, Terry J. Metrovich, who resigned to pursue other business opportunities closer to home.
Caswell, 42, who started work Monday and intends to move into the community soon, was president and chief executive of the Bank of San Diego and one of nine directors to resign in February in a falling out with the other two bank directors, who are the major owners.
Metrovich, 43, who had been commuting from San Diego, served as Monarch’s president for about 17 months. He could not be reached for comment.
The bank, with $64 million in assets, is under regulatory orders to raise capital to 7% of its assets. That ratio was 4.6% at the end of June. Caswell said a cash infusion by directors in the last week and efforts to convert more than $800,000 of company debt to stock should raise the ratio to more than 5%.
The bank lost more than $2 million last year but cut the flow of red ink in the first six month by posting a much-reduced $66,000 loss, Caswell said.
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