Community West Bank Expands into Paso Robles

GOLETA, Calif., May 26, 2017 -- Community West Bancshares, (NASDAQ:CWBC), parent company of Community West Bank, today announced that the bank will open a loan production office in Paso Robles at 725 Creston Road in June.  This will be Community West Bank’s first Paso Robles office.  The bank has seven full-service banking branch offices throughout San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, including one in San Luis Obispo.

“Community West Bank continues to expand our business banking presence on California’s Central Coast,” said Martin E. Plourd, President and Chief Executive Officer.  “Since opening a San Luis Obispo loan production office in 2015, and a full-service San Luis Obispo branch office last year, our bank has experienced significant growth.  We feel that there is real opportunity for Community West Bank to provide financing and responsive service to businesses throughout northern San Luis Obispo County.”

An experienced team of business bankers in Paso Robles, led by Jason Bietz, Senior Vice President and Regional Market Manager, will focus on providing local businesses with term loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate and construction financing, agriculture loans and equipment financing, along with a full range of cash management services.

“After our loan production office opens in June, we will file an application for a full-service banking branch office to open in Paso Robles next year,” said Bill Filippin, Executive Vice President and Chief Banking Officer of Community West Bank.  “The banking landscape is changing, with fewer community banks and larger banks closing offices.  More than ever, there is a need for flexible business financing and decision making that locally owned and managed Community West Bank provides.”

Community West Bank opened a full-service branch office in San Luis Obispo in November, 2016, relocated its Santa Maria branch office in January, 2017 and opened a new branch office in Oxnard in January, 2017.

About Community West Bank
Community West Bank is the largest publicly traded and only community bank headquartered and serving California’s Central Coast area of Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties with officers and staff located in seven full-service banking branch offices in Goleta, Oxnard, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Ventura and Westlake Village.  Founded in 1989, the bank has grown to $748 million in assets.  Community West Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Community West Bancshares (NASDAQ:CWBC), a financial services company with headquarters in Goleta, California.  In September 2016, Community West Bank was named to Sandler O’Neill and Partners Bank and Thrift Sm-All Stars – Class of 2016.  This award recognized Community West Bank as one of the top 27 best performing small capitalization institutions from a list of publicly traded banks and thrifts in the U.S. with market capitalizations less than $2.5 billion.  In making their selections, Sandler focused on growth, profitability, credit quality and capital strength. For more information, visit www.CommunityWestBank.com.

Safe Harbor Disclosure
This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect management’s current views of future events and operations. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company as of the date of this release.  It is important to note that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the ability of the Company to implement its strategy and expand its lending operations. 

Contact: Martin E. Plourd, President and CEO
(805) 692-4382