BancWest Makes Deal to Expand in California

In its second acquisition this year, BancWest Corp. said it would pay $245 million in cash for USDB Bancorp, the privately held parent of Union Safe Deposit Bank, a 19-branch institution based in Stockton.

Honolulu-based BancWest, a subsidiary of France’s BNP Paribas, operates 222 Bank of the West branches in California but previously had only 11 in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, where USDB operates. BancWest said it had targeted the area for expansion.

BancWest agreed last month to pay $1.2 billion for Community First Bankshares Inc., a Fargo, N.D.-based bank with 155 branches in 12 states, including several offices in San Diego County.

E. Scott Reckard