John Guedry Quotations

Even though our new lending group, along with the hiring of other seasoned personnel, increased our operating expenses slightly, our efficiency ratio for the quarter remained strong.

Loan growth and strong net-interest margins continue to be the engines that drive our profitability. With fairly low cost of funds and a net-interest margin that grew to over 6 percent at the end of the quarter, our spreads are yielding very healthy returns to our bottom line. Even with the steady climb in short-term interest rates by the Federal Reserve Bank over the last 18 months, our loan pipeline remains very strong with over $100 million in pending applications.

We are very pleased to hire these qualified individuals to fill much needed positions in our growing Bank. With recent announcements of several bank acquisitions in this market, we're taking advantage of a number of opportunities to attract and hire very seasoned bankers who can help move us get to the next level of becoming the premier business bank in Nevada.

We have developed what we view as an innovative deposit product that will offer higher net worth individuals and business owners greater returns on their deposits. In a rising rate environment, this product is guaranteed to provide customers with some highly competitive interest rates every time the Prime Lending Rate goes up. Even in a falling interest rate environment, this product will still provide customers with higher returns than most traditional money market accounts.

We continued to enjoy quality growth in virtually every area of the company during the fourth quarter and throughout all of last year.