Eastern Virginia Bankshares, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in
Tappahannock, Virginia that was organized and chartered under the laws of the
Commonwealth of Virginia on September 5, 1997 and commenced operations on December
29, 1997. Through our wholly-owned bank subsidiary, EVB (the “Bank”),
we operate twenty-four full service branches and two drive-in facilities in
eastern Virginia, and one loan production office in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Two of EVB’s three predecessor banks, Bank of Northumberland, Inc. and
Southside Bank, were established in 1910. The third bank, Hanover Bank, was
established as a de novo bank in 2000. In April 2006, these three banks were
merged and the surviving bank was re-branded as EVB. Additionally, the Company
acquired Virginia Company Bank (“VCB”) on November 14, 2014 and
merged VCB with and into the Bank with the Bank surviving, thereby adding to
the Bank three additional branches located in Newport News, Williamsburg and
Hampton.
EVB is a community bank targeting small to medium-sized businesses and consumers
in our traditional coastal plain markets and the emerging suburbs outside of
the Richmond, Tidewater, and southern Virginia areas. Our mission is dedicated
to providing the highest quality financial services to our customers, enriching
the health and vitality of the communities we serve, and enhancing shareholder
value.
We provide a broad range of personal and commercial banking services including
commercial, consumer and real estate loans. We complement our lending operations
with an array of retail and commercial deposit products and fee-based services.
Our services are delivered locally by well-trained and experienced bankers,
whom we empower to make decisions at the local level, so they can provide timely
lending decisions and respond promptly to customer inquiries. Having been in
many of our markets for over 100 years, we have established relationships with
and an understanding of our customers. We believe that, by offering our customers
personalized service and a breadth of products, we can compete effectively as
we expand within our existing markets and into new markets.
The Bank owns EVB Financial Services, Inc., which in turn has a 100% ownership
interest in EVB Investments, Inc. EVB Investments, Inc. is a full-service brokerage
firm offering a comprehensive range of investment services. On May 15, 2014,
the Bank acquired a 4.9% ownership interest in Southern Trust Mortgage, LLC.
Pursuant to an independent contractor agreement with Southern Trust Mortgage,
LLC, the Company advises and consults with Southern Trust Mortgage, LLC and
facilitates the marketing and brand recognition of their mortgage business.
In addition, the Company provides Southern Trust Mortgage, LLC with offices
at three retail branches in the Company’s market area and access to office
equipment at these locations during normal business hours. For its services,
the Company receives fixed monthly compensation from Southern Trust Mortgage,
LLC in the amount of $2 thousand, which is adjustable on a quarterly basis.
The Bank had a 75% ownership interest in EVB Title, LLC, which primarily sold
title insurance to the mortgage loan customers of the Bank and EVB Mortgage,
LLC. Effective January 2014, the Bank ceased operations of EVB Title, LLC due
to low volume and profitability. On October 1, 2014, the Bank acquired a 6.0%
ownership interest in Bankers Title, LLC. Bankers Title, LLC is a multi-bank
owned title agency providing a full range of title insurance settlement and
related financial services. The Bank has a 2.87% ownership in Bankers Insurance,
LLC, which primarily sells insurance products to customers of the Bank, and
other financial institutions that have an equity interest in the agency. The
Bank also has 100% ownership interests in Dunston Hall LLC, POS LLC, Tartan
Holdings LLC and ECU-RE LLC, which were formed to hold the title to real estate
acquired by the Bank upon foreclosure on property of real estate secured loans.
The financial position and operating results of all the subsidiaries of the
Bank are not significant to the Company as a whole and are not considered principal
activities of the Company at this time.
As a result of over 100 years of experience serving the Northern Neck and Middle
Peninsula regions, we have a stable, loyal customer base and a high deposit
market share in these regions. Due to the lower projected population growth
of these markets, we expanded in Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, Gloucester,
New Kent and King William Counties and the city of Colonial Heights to target
the higher potential growth in these existing and emerging suburban markets.
The deposit market share we have accumulated in our Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula
and Southern regions has helped fund our loan growth in the emerging suburban
areas in the Capital region. Additionally, in 2014 we expanded into our Tidewater
region through the acquisition of VCB. This acquisition added three branches
and expanded our footprint along the U.S. Interstate 64 corridor into the attractive
and growing markets of the Virginia Peninsula.
We believe that economic growth and bank consolidation have created a growing
number of businesses and consumers in need of a broad range of products and
services, as well as the high level of personal service that we provide. While
we have largely worked through the economic challenges of the past few years
and look at 2016 as a year to strengthen our existing markets, our long-term
business plan is to capitalize on the growth opportunity in our markets by further
developing our branch network in our existing markets and augmenting our market
area by expanding further in areas near the urban markets of Richmond and the
Greater Tidewater area.
