NCPC (National Capital Planning Commission) Newsletter Feature by Lucy Romero, Torrey Pines Bank
Banking That’s Different for Local Nonprofits: Torrey Pines Bank
What do you benefit most from being a member of NCPC?
At Torrey Pines Bank, we are dedicated to supporting Southern California’s business and nonprofit communities – being a member of NCPC has proven to be tremendously valuable. NCPC educates and connects their members to many of our North County nonprofit organizations and the events they host are always well planned and executed, providing significant opportunities for businesses and nonprofit executives to connect. As a business banker with Torrey Pines, I am very much looking forward to continuing to meet many more local nonprofit leaders and understand their important efforts to help build thriving communities.
What is your Mission?
Founded by local business and financial experts, Torrey Pines Bank is uniquely positioned to offer a highly personalized banking experience with a focus on exceptional service, a broad range of solutions, a commitment to building relationships, and ready access to decision makers. That is our mission as an organization – and my personal mission as part of the team.
What do you offer to the community? What event/program or campaign do you have coming up that you would like to share with our readers?
We have a great deal of experience providing banking services for nonprofits, and we make it our business to know as much as possible about our clients across the Southern California economy. Each industry sector and profession has specific banking and financing needs, and our experts deliver financial solutions and services to meet – and exceed – those needs. Because Torrey Pines Bank is a subsidiary of Western Alliance Bancorporation, a much-admired national banking company, we offer a full range of financial products and the robust lending capabilities businesses and nonprofits need to succeed.
What was your organization/company’s biggest accomplishment in the past six months – one year? What changes/opportunities have occurred due to COVID-19?
If you ask any of our clients, one of the most valuable differentiators that sets Torrey Pines apart is the care each of us takes to build personal relationships with our clients. We pride ourselves on being a relationship bank and throughout the last year especially, during the COVID-19 shutdowns across the state and country, we had to pivot like our customers and utilize technology in new ways to stay connected to our clients and help them meet new needs. Having a relationship-first foundation enabled us to be both responsive to and proactive about our clients’ needs while they dealt with unprecedented business changes.
Additionally, last year, Torrey Pines Bank committed nearly a half million dollars, as part of a larger $2 million contribution from Western Alliance Bancorporation to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on local communities across Southern California and strengthen those communities as they worked to emerge from the crisis. Torrey Pines Bank’s commitment has also been supporting longer-term efforts to strengthen communities and create resilience for low- and moderate-income families, including programs to prevent homelessness, provide continuum of care, and bolster affordable housing and economic development.
Have you made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization/company and if so, how are you demonstrating it?
Beyond our commitment to our employee’s and clients’ needs, we also strive to be in tune with community needs as well. Our consistent contributions – including lending, investments, donations and volunteerism – to support education, affordable housing, economic development and human services, reflect our local roots and our commitment to building a better Southern California for generations to come. In fact, members of our team actively support nonprofit organizations, often serving on multiple boards and committees.
Our approach to community reinvestment also is expressed through attractive business banking services tailored to the needs of community nonprofits. Through our Foundation, we offer program-specific support to 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that have their depository accounts with Torrey Pines Bank, primarily focusing on organizations and programs that provide affordable housing for low- or moderate-income individuals; community services targeted to low- or moderate-income individuals; education for low-income and at-risk students; economic development; revitalization or stabilization of low- or moderate-income areas; human services; or cultural and artistic enrichment in underserved communities.
Torrey Pines Bank is pleased to join other civic and business leaders across our region to take part in meaningful economic development support throughout Southern California – and NCPC is a key part of this approach.
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Lucy Romero has been a member of the North County Philanthropy Council since 2020, and she is a longtime local business banker. She currently is Senior Branch Banking Sales Officer for San Diego-based Torrey Pines Bank, where she has worked with businesses and nonprofits across Southern California for more than six years.