From memory, this is the story. Please feel free to add and/or correct it.

Central Valley was poorly run by over charge but even more bloated overhead, but it did not get into trouble til mid 90's when large defaults started. By 1999, the balance sheet was in tatter, so was the book of loans.

Came Mr. Doyle. Mr. Doyle was with U S Bank in charge of west coast operation. (I think the credit officer was brought in at around the same time.) The bank was trimmed down and lending was tightened, it was turned around before the recession of 2001 and grew three fold by 2007. Though the overhead was still high, it could have been due to the kind of services that customers demands.

Circa November 2008, when Service First got into trouble, Central Valley snatched it up for a good price. (On hind sight, if it only waited...but we'd never know for sure.) Anyhow, the price was right, $18 million for a $220 million bank. One third was paid with cash--half of that was set aside for excessive loss-- the rest, $12 million in newly minted stocks, at about $7.50 per share. The new addition boosted the bank by yet another 40% (this more than quadrupled the size from 2000) and its bad loans--the great majority of which from Service First--are being worked on.

It's encouraging to see that Central Valley added one new branch. New branch won't make money right away but this lays the foundation for the future.