End for State Charter?: Security Pacific State...

End for State Charter?: Security Pacific State Bank has been an experiment in the use of a state charter for its parent company, Security Pacific Corp., and the Bush Administration’s proposal may end that experiment.

The parent company’s more well-known subsidiary is Security Pacific National Bank, one of the state’s largest banks and one most likely considered too big to fail.

The state bank, acquired from the remnants of the failed Bank of Irvine in 1984, has been one of Orange County’s more profitable banks mainly by providing services to other banks, including its sister institution.

The state charter, for instance, has allowed it to invest in a brokerage company, aa real estate development firm and a leasing company. The national bank cannot own such operations.

What the Bush Administration’s proposed restructuring of the banking industry will do to Security Pacific State Bank is unclear, Rickard said.

“There may be some changes in the state bank,” he said. “We don’t know how the laws will turn out as far as our ability to own stocks in other companies.”