Billy Beale
Banking apparently beckons Billy Beale.
The veteran Richmond banker, who first retired as CEO of what’s now Atlantic Union Bank in 2016 only to un-retire for a brief gig at Community Bankers’ Bank in 2018, has un-retired once again.
This time he’s back to take the helm of Blue Ridge Bank, which is based in Charlottesville but keeps executive offices and a sizable branch presence in the Richmond area.
“The obvious question is, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Beale said Tuesday, his second day on the job at Blue Ridge, anticipating the first question in an interview with BizSense.
“One is it’s an interesting challenge to come into a $3.5 billion bank that’s grown very rapidly and doesn’t have the executive management depth that it needs and doesn’t have anybody in executive management that’s run a bank of this size.”
Beale said that Blue Ridge reached out to him about the job earlier this year and that he’s known the bank’s CEO, Brian Plum, for some time. Plum had been CEO of both the bank and the bank’s holding company since February 2021, shortly after its merger with Henrico-based Virginia Commonwealth Bank. With Beale on board as CEO of the bank, Plum is now CEO only of the holding company.
Beale enters the fray at an interesting time for Blue Ridge and the banking world at large.
Blue Ridge has been on a relatively rapid growth trajectory, beginning with its acquisition of River Community Bank in Martinsville in 2016 and Louisa-based Virginia Community Bank in 2019. Then came its marriage with Virginia Commonwealth Bank in early 2021, which doubled Blue Ridge’s size overnight.
Blue Ridge entered the Richmond market via the acquisition of Virginia Commonwealth Bank. The deal included VCB’s branch on Patterson Avenue and six others in the region and 27 in total.
Later that year it attempted another merger with FVCBankcorp in Northern Virginia, but that deal was killed by regulators in early 2022. The deal would have created the fourth largest bank in the state.
Beale said the need for additional leadership at Blue Ridge stems in part from the abrupt departure of Randy Greene. He formerly was CEO of Virginia Commonwealth Bank and as part of the merger was to serve as CEO of the combined banks while Plum led the holding company. But Greene left for undisclosed reasons barely a week after the deal closed.
“I’ve known Brian Plum for a while and he understood the bank had these gaps and was looking for somebody who had the experience of running this size organization,” Beale said.
Blue Ridge also is dealing with heightened regulatory scrutiny, because it’s under what’s known as a written agreement. The agreement put in place in late 2022 and was prompted by findings from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which found that Blue Ridge had “unsafe or unsound practices” related to assessing and managing risks posed by the bank’s relationships with third-party financial technology firms.
The existence of the agreement coincided with regulators axing the FVC deal.
Beale said getting out from under that written agreement is a priority for him.
“Goal number one: Let’s get the processes and support mechanisms in place that the regulators want to see so they can release us from the written agreement,” he said. “After that, it’s increasing profitability, growing core deposits and building out the team.”
Blue Ridge posted a first-quarter profit of $1.6 million, down from $17.4 million in the same period last year. Part of the lag on profitability is from more than $4 million spent on remediation related to the written agreement since it was put in place.
The bank also is keeping a close watch on deposits and the value of certain investment securities, the types of which have come under scrutiny within the broader banking market since the collapse in March of Silicon Valley Bank set off a wave of tumult in the industry. That’s led to additional bank failures, most recently First Republic Bank.
While SVB and other banks were battered by a simultaneous decline in the value of those securities and depositors pulling their funds in search of better returns, Blue Ridge said its deposits held steady in the first quarter and increased by $258.5 million, or 10 percent since the end of 2022.
Beale said the drama in the industry of late only adds to the intrigue of his new position.
“There’s a significant difference between a $3.5 billion community bank and the First Republics and Silicon Valley Banks of the world,” he said. “But because you have some of that uncertainty going on about banks in general, it certainly makes for a little more interesting challenge.”
A graduate of The Citadel, Beale began his banking career in the early 1970s, working over the years at Capital Bank and Security Bank. In the late ’80s he moved to what was then known as Union Bank & Trust. He oversaw the bank’s growth to $8.5 billion in assets, before handing the reins to John Asbury. The bank is now known as Atlantic Union Bank and has more than $20 billion in assets.
The Blue Ridge job is Beale’s second CEO stint since his retirement from Atlantic Union. His first comeback tour was at Midlothian-based Community Bankers’ Bank, which needed help getting back in the black. He achieved that goal in less than two years before passing the torch to another CEO.
“CBB just needed a few tweaks here and there to return it to profitability. This (role at Blue Ridge) is much different,” he said.
Still in his first week on the job, Beale said he’s taking it all in.
“There’s a lot to learn and I’m trying to gather it all in as quickly as I can,” he said.
Billy Beale
Banking apparently beckons Billy Beale.
The veteran Richmond banker, who first retired as CEO of what’s now Atlantic Union Bank in 2016 only to un-retire for a brief gig at Community Bankers’ Bank in 2018, has un-retired once again.
This time he’s back to take the helm of Blue Ridge Bank, which is based in Charlottesville but keeps executive offices and a sizable branch presence in the Richmond area.
“The obvious question is, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Beale said Tuesday, his second day on the job at Blue Ridge, anticipating the first question in an interview with BizSense.
“One is it’s an interesting challenge to come into a $3.5 billion bank that’s grown very rapidly and doesn’t have the executive management depth that it needs and doesn’t have anybody in executive management that’s run a bank of this size.”
Beale said that Blue Ridge reached out to him about the job earlier this year and that he’s known the bank’s CEO, Brian Plum, for some time. Plum had been CEO of both the bank and the bank’s holding company since February 2021, shortly after its merger with Henrico-based Virginia Commonwealth Bank. With Beale on board as CEO of the bank, Plum is now CEO only of the holding company.
Beale enters the fray at an interesting time for Blue Ridge and the banking world at large.
Blue Ridge has been on a relatively rapid growth trajectory, beginning with its acquisition of River Community Bank in Martinsville in 2016 and Louisa-based Virginia Community Bank in 2019. Then came its marriage with Virginia Commonwealth Bank in early 2021, which doubled Blue Ridge’s size overnight.
Blue Ridge entered the Richmond market via the acquisition of Virginia Commonwealth Bank. The deal included VCB’s branch on Patterson Avenue and six others in the region and 27 in total.
Later that year it attempted another merger with FVCBankcorp in Northern Virginia, but that deal was killed by regulators in early 2022. The deal would have created the fourth largest bank in the state.
Beale said the need for additional leadership at Blue Ridge stems in part from the abrupt departure of Randy Greene. He formerly was CEO of Virginia Commonwealth Bank and as part of the merger was to serve as CEO of the combined banks while Plum led the holding company. But Greene left for undisclosed reasons barely a week after the deal closed.
“I’ve known Brian Plum for a while and he understood the bank had these gaps and was looking for somebody who had the experience of running this size organization,” Beale said.
Blue Ridge also is dealing with heightened regulatory scrutiny, because it’s under what’s known as a written agreement. The agreement put in place in late 2022 and was prompted by findings from the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which found that Blue Ridge had “unsafe or unsound practices” related to assessing and managing risks posed by the bank’s relationships with third-party financial technology firms.
The existence of the agreement coincided with regulators axing the FVC deal.
Beale said getting out from under that written agreement is a priority for him.
“Goal number one: Let’s get the processes and support mechanisms in place that the regulators want to see so they can release us from the written agreement,” he said. “After that, it’s increasing profitability, growing core deposits and building out the team.”
Blue Ridge posted a first-quarter profit of $1.6 million, down from $17.4 million in the same period last year. Part of the lag on profitability is from more than $4 million spent on remediation related to the written agreement since it was put in place.
The bank also is keeping a close watch on deposits and the value of certain investment securities, the types of which have come under scrutiny within the broader banking market since the collapse in March of Silicon Valley Bank set off a wave of tumult in the industry. That’s led to additional bank failures, most recently First Republic Bank.
While SVB and other banks were battered by a simultaneous decline in the value of those securities and depositors pulling their funds in search of better returns, Blue Ridge said its deposits held steady in the first quarter and increased by $258.5 million, or 10 percent since the end of 2022.
Beale said the drama in the industry of late only adds to the intrigue of his new position.
“There’s a significant difference between a $3.5 billion community bank and the First Republics and Silicon Valley Banks of the world,” he said. “But because you have some of that uncertainty going on about banks in general, it certainly makes for a little more interesting challenge.”
A graduate of The Citadel, Beale began his banking career in the early 1970s, working over the years at Capital Bank and Security Bank. In the late ’80s he moved to what was then known as Union Bank & Trust. He oversaw the bank’s growth to $8.5 billion in assets, before handing the reins to John Asbury. The bank is now known as Atlantic Union Bank and has more than $20 billion in assets.
The Blue Ridge job is Beale’s second CEO stint since his retirement from Atlantic Union. His first comeback tour was at Midlothian-based Community Bankers’ Bank, which needed help getting back in the black. He achieved that goal in less than two years before passing the torch to another CEO.
“CBB just needed a few tweaks here and there to return it to profitability. This (role at Blue Ridge) is much different,” he said.
Still in his first week on the job, Beale said he’s taking it all in.
“There’s a lot to learn and I’m trying to gather it all in as quickly as I can,” he said.
“the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which found that Blue Ridge had “unsafe or unsound practices” related to assessing and managing risks posed by the bank’s relationships with third-party financial technology firms.” Does anyone in banking know what this means? From a layman’s POV, Beale wants to get out from under some Federal agreement? Fintech is where the banking market is moving towards – like Stripe, Klarna, Robinhood. Why would the Feds consider relationships with fintech to be unsafe? I’m just curious to hear what bankers think since regional banks are getting hammered in the markets right… Read more »