Bank angers commissioners

The Sweetwater County Commissioners feel as though Bank of the West Corporate has waged war against them when it declared it would no longer support certain businesses in the oil and gas and coal industries.

According to Bank of the West’s website blog.bankofthewest.com/change, “We will no longer do business with companies whose main activity is exploring, producing, distributing, marketing or trading oil and gas from shale and/or tar sands. “We will no longer finance coal mines or coal-fired power plants that are not actively involved in the energy transition.”

The Bank of the West also stated on the website, its “withdrawing support from companies and business activities that are detrimental to our environment and our health.”

Corporate headquarters is located in San Francisco and in 2001, Bank of the West’s holding company BancWest Corporation became a wholly-owned subsidiary of BNP Paribas, which is based in France. Today, Bank of the West operates more than 600 retail, wealth, commercial and business banking offices in 23 states.

Commission chairman Reid West read the website’s statement verbatim prior to starting discussion on the issue.

He said Sweetwater County is an energy producing county and it’s always been its heritage. The taxes these industries pay fund state’s schools.

“Personally, it’s very concerning to me,” West said.

At the county level, a lot of banking is done locally with Bank of the West. He said even though it’s a corporate opinion and may not reflect the local branch, the local branch will still need to carry out those policies.

West cautioned the group on both overreacting and under reacting to the news, but he said they did have to react and could do so as quickly as the next meeting if they wanted to.

“I don’t want to do any business with anybody who takes that position,” Commissioner Wally Johnson said.

Johnson not only wants the county’s funds taken out of the bank, but he will close his own personal accounts also.

County treasurer Robb Slaughter said $15.8 million of the general fund is with Bank of the West, while $1.4 million is in insurance with them and about $14 million is in investments through the bank.

“This is a very bold statement they made,” Slaughter said. “It’s a punch in the stomach when you’re hit with something like this out of the blue.”

Commissioner John Kolb said he wanted to terminate all financing and investing opportunities with them. He later said he was going to be blunt and said the bank has declared war against them.

Commissioner Randy Wendling said the oil and gas is this county’s foundation and while he agrees with the other commissioners he wanted to make sure it’s done slowly and properly.

Slaughter said it’s not as simple as pulling all funding out of the bank and severing all ties. They will need to find a bank that can collateralize everything the county needs. He said he didn’t know if any of the county’s current banks could collateralize what they need and he’d have to make some calls.

He said he will address the issue appropriately. The commissioners asked him to be on the agenda for the next meeting to give an update. A decision to terminate all business with the bank could be taken at the next meeting, which is Aug. 21.

All of the commissioners agreed that this has nothing to do with the local branch, but corporate’s decision. They all agreed there are good people working at the local branch and their decision, should it be made at a future meeting, is nothing against them.

 

 

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