BANKING / FINANCE

A small San Diego County bank has purchased Banker’s Mortgage Service Corp. in Orange, a mortgage lender that has been funding up to $3.5 million in loans every month.

The purchase price paid by Rancho Vista National Bank was not disclosed.

All nine employees at Banker’s Mortgage, including owners Michael Hughes and Douglas McCracken, remained with the bank as part of its mortgage division.

McCracken said the old staff, operating as a loan production office in the old Banker’s Mortgage offices, is already expanding. It has hired two more employees and plans to hire three or four more this year.

Herbert E. Slezinger, Rancho Vista’s president, said in prepared remarks that the new unit will account for about 10% of the bank’s total loan activity and will boost net income by up to 25%.

Rancho Vista’s assets were $47.2 million at the end of 1988, and its net income for the year was $550,000. Slezinger, with 17 years of banking experience, was once president of the former Heritage Bank in Anaheim.