Mission Bank to Move into New Digs in November

With the announcement of their second quarter earnings, Mission Bank also said that they will be occupying a new building in Shafter in November. They had earlier said that the move would happen during the second quarter, but no matter. I am sure it will happen this time.

Local banks are important. The untold (or at least less told) story of current financial crisis is the story of how the excessive reliance on credit scores at the heart of so many problems was closely tied to the consolidation of the banking industry in recent decades. Historically, local bankers were the personal judges of reputation and credit-worthiness, but banks owned from afar took underwriting decisions out of the hands of local bankers and standardized them using credit scores and statistics. Standardizing the process has had some undoubtedly good effects - for example, such decisions are blind to race and other things that have made capital flow more easily to privileged groups - however it also contributed to the recent silliness.

Here is an article that says more about the moral goodness of local banks.

In short, local banks are a good thing in general and the fact that Mission Bank is in Shafter and will soon be occupying a real building is also good. It bespeaks commitment. If it turned out that Shafter branch manager A.J. Antongiovanni actually lived in Shafter, well then you would hear a full-throated endorsement.