BANKING/FINANCE : CommerceBank Vets Trying to Take Some Deposits to New Jobs

Competition among the larger of Orange County’s 33 independent banks should be heating up as two veteran banking executives recently left CommerceBank in Newport Beach for potentially greener pastures.

Robert D. Hoyt, a mayor of Orange in the late 1970s, joined Pioneer Bank to help the Fullerton institution beef up its 2-year-old branch in Orange.

Shortly before his colleague’s departure, Harvey Ferguson, as previously reported, left for a newly created job as chief administrative officer at Eldorado Bank in Tustin.

Though he is one of four executive vice presidents, Ferguson has control over the bank’s profit centers and has a good chance of succeeding J. B. Crowell as president or chief executive should Crowell decide to retire or relinquish one of his posts.

Crowell said the new structure frees him to plan mergers and other long-term moves to help the bank double its asset size to $750 million within four years.

At CommerceBank, Ferguson didn’t have the opportunity for much advancement.

Hoyt’s departure, though, was a different story. Clyde H. Gossert, CommerceBank’s chairman, said only that Hoyt’s resignation was one of “mutual agreement.” That’s often a code term that indicates something went wrong.

Hoyt acknowledged that he and Ferguson--who had been vice chairman and president, respectively, of California City Bank in Orange when CommerceBank bought it 21 months ago--”were not in the inner circle” at the Newport Beach operation.

Hoyt also said he had been wooed since the merger by his longtime friend, Richard Boyle, Pioneer’s president. Boyle said he hopes that Hoyt can boost the $25 million in deposits in the bank’s Orange branch. The new business could well come out of CommerceBank.

Hoyt admitted that the job won’t be quick or easy, especially since CommerceBank is known for treating its customers well.