Since its opening in 2006, Spokane-based RiverBank Holding Co., the parent company of RiverBank, has maintained an unusual approach to community banking: The bank operates out of just one office, located in a four-story building at 202 E. Spokane Falls Blvd., in Spokane’s University District, and it intentionally has no branches.

Mike Wilson, who took over the role of CEO in December 2021 after serving as chief banking officer, says the bank’s founders didn’t believe that having multiple branches was the way of the future.

“The fact that we did not invest in a lot of physical branches has been a great strategy,” he says. “It really allows us to continue to invest in the human resources expertise that customers still very much desire.”

RiverBank, which currently has about 40 employees, offers both business and personal banking services, although its primary focus is on business banking.

“We don’t have a strong retail focus. We know what we’re good at, and that’s business banking,” Wilson says. “Our mantra is ‘making business banking easy,’ and we’ve done a really good job of that.”

Wilson says RiverBank’s no-branch business model eliminates the need to staff, maintain, and operate other locations. It also allows for more funds and resources to be invested in the services it provides, including its digital banking offerings.

“We think that, today and certainly in the future, what business owners want is everything that they need from a tech perspective to be able to do anything on their own that they choose to,” he says.

Wilson says that RiverBank’s focus on business banking and developing strong relationships with customers has proven to be a successful strategy.

“We’ve always had a slightly differentiated business model, and that’s allowed us to serve a really strong niche in the banking world,” he says.

RiverBank has displayed strong performance gains recently.

The bank’s net income for the first quarter ending March 31 was $518,000, up about 84% from the net income of $281,000 in the year-earlier quarter, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data. Net income for the first quarter of 2021 was $378,000.

RiverBank’s net loans and leases increased by almost 28% to $181.5 million as of March 31, compared with $142.2 million a year earlier. That follows a 17% increase in loans as of March 31, 2022, compared with $121 million at the end of the first quarter in 2021.

The bank’s assets totaled $222.9 million as of March 31, representing a 20% increase from a year earlier, when total assets were at $185.4 million. Assets totaled $186.7 million on March 31, 2021.

Total deposits at RiverBank also have been on the rise. As of March 31, the bank had $193.7 million in deposits, up about 17%, compared with $165 million a year earlier. Deposits totaled $147.5 million on March 31, 2021.

RiverBank ranks 12th on the Journal’s most recent list of Spokane and Kootenai county banks, which ranks banks by total local deposits as of Dec. 31, 2022.

“The bank has been on a really strong growth trajectory,” Wilson says. “We’re certainly out there competing for deposits with other banks.”

RiverBank’s growth comes despite economic challenges at both the local and national levels over the past couple of years, including inflation and fears of a potential recession.

“We saw in 2022 some interest rate increases on the horizon, and we’ve shifted some of our focus to non-real estate related loans,” Wilson says. “That really meant that we focused a lot of time, attention, and resources on working directly with business owners.”

Wilson says commercial and industrial loans and business acquisitions are the “bread-and-butter deals” for community banks.

“We’ve been able to get in front of those customers, bring that business over here to RiverBank, and really keep our growth going despite there being not as many real estate deals getting done in the latter half of 2022, or year-to-date in ’23,” Wilson says.

RiverBank currently serves over 1,500 customers, with most of its service area being within 100 miles of Spokane, Wilson says.

“There’s plenty of room for us to grow in the Spokane market, and that might not mean physical growth—meaning a branch—but it certainly means that the bank will continue to grow here,” he says.

Wilson says the bank’s focus is on Spokane, but he doesn’t rule out future expansion.

“We want to … continue helping local businesses, and eventually, if that leads to expansion outside of our immediate Spokane market, then that would certainly be a sign that what we’re doing is preferred by the customer,” he says.