Los Alamos National Bank has merged with a bigger bank that already has branches in two states, marking the second shift of a local bank to a national one in Santa Fe in recent years.
Jim Lally, president of Enterprise Financial Services Corp., sent an email to customers announcing the merger with Trinity Capital Corp., LANB's holding company. Enterprise Bank and Trust has 34 locations in St. Louis and Phoenix, the statement reads.
"As we integrate our organizations," the statement reads, "we will will remain true to the principles both our companies were founded on: local decision-making, longstanding client relationships and engaged associates."
LANB has six locations, three in Santa Fe. It was founded in 1963 in Los Alamos by a group of scientists who worked at the national lab and began offering services in Santa Fe in 1994, according to its website.
The bank joins First National of Santa Fe on a list of locals that aren't anymore. First National's parent corporation merged with Sunflower Financial in 2017, and that was after a Texas company acquired the oldest bank in the Southwest—and its Plaza landmark—in 2012.
Across the nation, the banking industry has been in a long period of consolidation. The Wall Street Journal reported last summer that the number of US banks dipped last year below 5,000, just over a third from a peak of nearly 14,500 banks in 1984.
