March 31, 2022

LinkedIn phishing scams increase 232% since February

LinkedIn-image

Phishing attacks impersonating emails from LinkedIn have grown 232% since the start of February. The increase is likely related to more people looking for jobs, switching companies, or recruiting for open positions, thus making people more likely to click on emails from LinkedIn.

We have all received emails from LinkedIn saying things such as “You appeared in 4 searches this week,” “You have 1 new message,” and “Your profile matches this job.” Cybercriminals use email addresses with a LinkedIn display name to send fake emails with the same subject lines. In addition, the emails are branded with the LinkedIn logo, brand colors, and icons. To make the phishing attack more convincing, criminals use other well-known organizations’ names, including American Express and CVS.

The branded email templates lure victims to click on phishing links and enter their credentials into fraudulent websites. The hope is the credentials can be used for other websites that contain sensitive information.

What can you do to protect yourself?

  • Go directly to the LinkedIn website – To check messages and get updates, type in the full LinkedIn URL in your internet browser.
  • Slow down and review links – Hover over links to verify they direct you to the correct website.
  • Turn on two-step verification – Review your LinkedIn profile Settings & Privacy page. Turn on the two-step login verification system.
  • Report suspicious messages – LinkedIn encourages members to report suspicious messages to their help center.  This helps their team identify scams and better secure the platform.

For more information on cyber security and protecting your personal and financial information, visit our Safety and Security page.

March 30, 2022

Janette Moynier Named as Board Chair for First Tee Greater Sacramento

Janette Moynier Board Director
Janette Moynier Board Director

River City Bank is excited to announce that Janette Moynier has been named Board Chair of First Tee — Greater Sacramento for 2022. For the past five years, Janette has been committed to an organization that enables kids to build self-confidence, strength of character, and resilience through golf. It includes developing programs that are just as fun as they are meaningful, where kids feel excited to grow, safe to fail, and better equipped for whatever comes their way next.

As this year’s Chair, Janette will help First Tee — Greater Sacramento expand its reach to include even more young people. Currently, the organization serves over 58,000 kids in 88 elementary schools, nine golf course program locations, and within outreach programs throughout the community.

“There are so many worthwhile non-profits in the communities we serve. You ask me why First Tee – Greater Sacramento?” asks Janette. “As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words; today, it is a YouTube video.”  In 2017, First Tee – Greater Sacramento alumna, Noor Ahmed, stated it best in a speech in front of Congress. Noor spoke on how First Tee programs gave her the confidence to overcome bullying in school. See Noor’s speech here.

Jeanette Moynier with group at First Tee Funvitational 2021
January 28, 2022

River City Bank Reports 5 Percent Increase to the Quarterly Cash Dividend on Common Shares

SACRAMENTO, CASteve Fleming, president and chief executive officer of River City Bank (the Bank), announced that the Bank’s board of directors has approved a 5 percent increase to the quarterly cash dividend from $0.315 per common share to $0.33 per common share. This increase was made in connection with the Bank’s recently reported net income of $9.8 million and $44.5 million, or $6.63 and $30.14 diluted earnings per share for the quarter and year ending December 31, 2021. These dividends will be made to shareholders of record as of February 8, 2022, and payable on February 22, 2022.

January 27, 2022

River City Bank Reports 6th Consecutive Year with Record Net Income

SACRAMENTO, CA — River City Bank (the Bank) reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2021 of $9.81 million, or $6.63 per share, compared to $9.86 million, or $6.71 per share in the fourth quarter of 2020. The Bank also reported its 6th consecutive year of record net income with $44.5 million or $30.14 per diluted share, for the year ending December 31, 2021; this was $12.9 million more than the $31.6 million, or $21.58 per diluted share, for the year ending December 31, 2020. The improved net income versus the prior year was driven by:

  • Higher loan balances – Average loans outstandings were $232 million higher than the prior year, thereby increasing net interest income.
  • Deferred loan fee income associated with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans for the current year was $1.9 million higher than the prior year.
  • Interest expense declined $7.5 million as the Bank’s cost of funds declined from 0.74% in 2020 to 0.40% in 2021.
  • The provision for loan losses for the current year was $1.9 million lower than the prior year.
  • Mark-to-market gains (“MTM”) on interest rate swaps were $4.1 million higher than the prior year. The Bank entered into these swap agreements to hedge the interest rate risk associated with its ongoing origination of medium-term fixed rate commercial real estate loans.
  • The Bank recognized a $3.4 million gain on the sale of an investment in the first quarter of 2021.

“In addition to six consecutive years of record net income, we are very pleased to report record net loan growth of  $510 million for the year ending December 31, 2021, after excluding the $204 million reduction in PPP loans,” said Steve Fleming, president and chief executive officer of River City Bank.  “Our asset quality remains strong with virtually no delinquencies or non-performing loans, however, we remain cautious about the impact to the office segment of commercial real estate due to the potential reduction in demand as employers provide work-from-home opportunities.”

“Operational efficiency remains a core competency for the Bank, as evidenced by our 30 percent efficiency ratio   after excluding the swap MTM gain for the year ending December 31, 2021” said Anker Christensen, chief financial officer of River City Bank. “Though our total non-interest expense increased over the prior year, our focus on high productivity and managing expenses continues to be evident by our continued low efficiency ratio.”

Shareholders’ equity for River City Bank on December 31, 2021 increased $39 million to $308 million, when compared to the $269 million as of December 31, 2020. The increase was driven by current year retained earnings, slightly offset by a $5.4 million decrease in accumulated other comprehensive income as the increase in short and medium-term interest rates resulted in unrealized losses in our investment securities portfolio. The Bank’s capital ratio remains well above the regulatory definition for being Well Capitalized with a Tier 1 Leverage Ratio of 8.4% as of December 31, 2021.

December 20, 2021

Beyond Badges: Girl Scouts Heart of Central California (GSHCC)

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California

For over 100 years, the Girl Scouts organization has been teaching life skills. Founded in 1912, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America offers leadership programs to girls aged 5-18 in STEM, the outdoors, and entrepreneurship. The organization boasts a membership of everyone from suffragettes to astronauts to opera singers to Supreme Court justices to gold-medal athletes. Beyond badges, today’s programs now reflect the girls it serves, focusing on diversity, equity, and, more importantly, inclusion.

We sat down with the CFO, Rich Ryan, to talk about how the GSHCC has helped shape its members’ lives, as it continues to grow, pivot, and evolve.

How many members strong is GSHCC? 

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California (GSHCC) serves 18 northern and central California counties and is a community with more than 12,000 girls and 6,000 adult members sharing in the Girl Scout movement locally.

The Girl Scouts celebrates its 109th year in existence. What has changed, and what has remained the same?

The Girl Scout mission has held steady since 1912: Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. The girl-led, female environment allows girls to thrive and creates a safe space for girls of all ages, from grades K-12, to learn and grow. Being a Girl Scout helps girls across generations succeed in five key ways. As a Girl Scout, she:

  • Develops a strong sense of self
  • Displays positive values
  • Seeks challenges and learns from setbacks
  • Forms and maintains healthy relationships
  • Learns to identify and solve problems in her community

Because Girl Scouts is girl-led, we are always adapting to the interests and needs of modern girls. Over the past few years, we have expanded our focus on STEM programming through badge earning and hands-on experimentation at the GSHCC STEM Center + MakerSpaces. Outdoor opportunities have been elevated between Girl Scout resident camp, expeditions like backpacking and white water rafting, and high adventure troops. When girls get outside, they discover they can better solve problems and overcome challenges, develop leadership skills, care about protecting the environment, and more.

The Girls Scouts recently announced the addition of 28 new badges in STEM, entrepreneurship, and digital leadership. How do you believe these skills are helping to build our future leaders?

Through these badges, Girl Scouts as an organization is opening doors for girls that tend to be closed, largely due to outdated cultural biases. We’re showing young girls that they can be mathematicians, engineers, and CEOs, and we’re showing them HOW to do it.

Tell us more about the STEM Center + MakerSpaces. 

In order to provide girls with empowering, hands-on STEM learning opportunities, Girl Scouts Heart of Central California opened the region’s first girl-led, girl-built STEM Center + MakerSpaces. Located in Sacramento and Modesto, these unique facilities host a variety of STEM, maker, and design-thinking activities that encourage girls to embrace the spirit of scientific discovery in their lives. The Mobile STEM Center + MakerSpace enables girls across our 18-county region to access these activities in their own communities.

Through a variety of cooperative learning opportunities and hands-on experimentation, girls hone STEM-related skills while having fun and gaining confidence. Girl Scouts has also introduced 30 new badges to power girls’ leadership and to prepare them for careers in emerging technologies and STEM fields like cybersecurity, mechanical engineering, robotics, computer science, and space exploration.

What is the Girls Scout Gold Award, and how does someone earn one?

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a girl can earn as a Girl Scout. High school-age Girl Scouts earn the Girl Scout Gold Award by identifying and addressing issues that are dear to them and driving lasting change in their communities and beyond. Gold Award Girl Scouts spend an average of 1-2 years on their projects, more specifically 80+ hours.

We cannot discuss the Girls Scouts without talking about the famous cookies. How did the pandemic affect The Girl Scout Cookie Program?

The Girl Scout Cookie Program—the largest entrepreneurial program for girls in the world—gives girls hands-on practice with a variety of skills, including goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics as they learn to think like entrepreneurs. Through the program, they learn from setbacks, collaborate with other girls to reach common goals, and, over time, take on more responsibility for their cookie business as they progress through Girl Scouts.

Of course, the pandemic threw troops’ plans for a loop! But nobody was better prepared to innovate than our girls. Girls used the pandemic as an opportunity to run a digital business. Digital had been a component of cookie selling in the past, but in 2021 girls found themselves learning about digital marketing and partnering with big names in the digital sphere, such as GrubHub. Local residents will definitely see more of a girl presence in the upcoming cookie season that was missing last year. But with all their new digital skills, girls are positioned to be more successful than ever this year.

What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

My favorite cookie has been the thin mint, but I’m looking forward to trying the new cookie for 2022 called Adventurefuls. It’s a brownie-inspired cookie with caramel-flavored crème and a hint of sea salt.

To learn more about the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California, visit their website at www.girlscoutshcc.org.

December 20, 2021

Meet Nina Anderson

Nina-Anderson-Running

Nina Anderson is River City Bank’s Vice President, Credit Manager and oversees a team of commercial credit analysts. Her team is charged with analyzing an individual or a businesses’ financial information, along with other factors like the industry outlook and current economic environment, to determine the risk involved in lending money or extending credit.

Here, the UC Davis alumnae talks with us about giving it your all, finding a creative outlet, and how running keeps her centered while holding distractions at bay.

Nina-Running-e1640016459327-680x1024

Morning ritual: I typically try to squeeze in my run or a Pilates class. Then, coffee!

If you have an extra hour in the day, how would you spend it? Probably reading. Admittedly, I don’t make enough time for it as I’d like.

What is something people would be surprised to know about you? I love to run! I ran competitively in high school and for a short stint at UC Davis, and it has become a hobby ever since. I ran my first full marathon in 2019 (shout out to Ken and Riley at RCB for encouraging me to sign up!), and I’m currently training for my second one. People may be even more surprised to know that I don’t listen to music while I run. Without that distraction, running gives me a much-needed opportunity to think and reflect.

Nina and her Mom, Maria
Nina and her Mom, Maria

What is your current state of mind? Heading into the holiday season, I am feeling extra thankful.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Patience. While I do think it’s necessary in some cases, I also think it leads to a lot of wasted time and opportunities.

What do you like best about working at River City Bank? I love working for a company that holds true to its values. We employ the very best, which allows us to deliver exceptional customer service and work toward ambitious goals. I can’t wait to see where we are in the next five years.

December 20, 2021

New TSA PreCheck Scam Seeks to Collect Your Personal and Credit Card Details

By Stu Sjouweman, Founder and CEO | KnowBe4.

TSA-Precheck-Area

Doing one of the best jobs impersonating a website ever seen, this new scam attempts to take those renewing or initially signing up through a believable process that most would fall for.

Most of the time, impersonation scams take you to a “website” that’s more than a single web page designed to look like the logon page of the impersonated brand. But a new scam centered around registering for or renewing with TSA PreCheck takes the impersonation website to an entirely new level.

According to security researchers at Abnormal Security, this new scam starts out as wonky as most phishing scams with an email that doesn’t quite feel like it’s really from the TSA:

TSA-PreCheck-Scam-Email

But where it gets interesting is when potential victims click the link and are taken to a pretty believable TSA registration site:

TSA-PreCheck-Scam

According to Abnormal Security, the scammer went through the trouble of not just collecting the salient personal details they can misuse later, but went as far as to ask nearly all the same questions found in the actual application. And unlike most scams, they are attempting to take your credit card where payment is solicited for up front. This scam takes “payment” when it normally would – at the end of the process.

This scam is one of the reasons KnowBe4 exists – to educate users through effective Security Awareness Training so they won’t be fooled by these kinds of scams. The sender email address and email copy are dead giveaways – something well-trained users will spot a mile away, avoiding the scam all together.

To view more security articles, visit KnowBe4’s Security Awareness Training blog at https://blog.knowbe4.com/.

October 22, 2021

River City Bank Reports a Quarterly Cash Dividend on Common Shares

SACRAMENTO, CASteve Fleming, president and chief executive officer of River City Bank (the Bank), announced that the Bank’s board of directors has approved, in connection with the Bank’s recently reported net income of $11.7 million or $7.92 diluted earnings per share for the quarter ending September 30, 2021, a cash dividend of $0.315 per common share to shareholders of record as of November 2, 2021, and payable on November 16, 2021.

October 21, 2021

River City Bank Reports Net Income of $11.7 Million for the Third Quarter of 2021 and $34.7 Million Year To Date

River City Bank Also Received an Investment Grade Long Term Debt Rating from Standard & Poors

SACRAMENTO, CA — River City Bank (the Bank) reported net income of $11.7 million, or $7.92 per diluted share, for the quarter ending September 30, 2021, which compares favorably to the $8.3 million, or $5.70 per diluted share, for the same period in 2020.  Net income was $34.7 million or $23.51 per diluted share for the nine months ending September 30, 2021, which compares favorably to the $21.8 million or $14.86 per diluted share for the nine months ending September 30, 2020. Significant items impacting quarterly net income for September 30, 2021 and 2020, include the following:

  • Higher loan balances – Average loans outstandings were $233 million higher than the prior year quarter, thereby increasing net interest income.
  • The provision for loan losses for the current quarter of $2.0 million was less than the $3.35 million for the prior year quarter.
  • The Bank recorded an elevated level of $1.9 million prepayment premium income for the current quarter on commercial real estate loans that paid off prior to their maturity dates compared to only $764,000 for the prior year quarter.
  • Mark-to-market gains (“MTM”) of $740,000 and $365,000 on interest rate swaps were recorded for the quarters ending September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The Bank entered into these swap agreements to hedge the interest rate risk associated with its ongoing origination of medium-term fixed rate commercial real estate loans.
  • Deferred loan fee income associated with Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans was slightly lower in the current quarter with $1.4 million and $1.7 million for the quarters ending September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Receiving an investment grade long term credit rating from S&P Global was an important milestone for the Bank this quarter as it reflects their assessment of our operational efficiency, strong loan quality,  solid earnings capacity, and management stability,” said Shawn Devlin, chairman of the board of River City Bank.  “We are now one of the only banks in the nation with less than five billion dollars in total assets to have secured an investment grade rating from S&P.”

“We are very pleased with the $296 million of loan growth during the first nine-months of the year after excluding the $183 million reduction in PPP loans,” said Steve Fleming, president and chief executive officer of River City Bank.  “With vaccine distribution having ramped up and the California economy showing signs of improvement, we are optimistic about the near-term outlook for the Bank. We do, however, remain cautious about the impact to the office segment of commercial real estate due to the potential reduction in demand as employers provide work-from-home opportunities. Nevertheless, our asset quality remains strong with virtually no delinquencies or non-performing loans.”

“Operational efficiency remains a core competency for the Bank, as evidenced by our 30 percent efficiency ratio after excluding the swap MTM gain for the nine-months ending September 30, 2021,” said Anker Christensen, chief financial officer of River City Bank. “Though our year-to-date total non-interest expense increased over the prior year period, our focus on managing expenses continues to be evident by our continued low efficiency ratio.”

Shareholders’ equity for River City Bank on September 30, 2021 increased $31 million to $301 million, when compared to the $270 million as of December 31, 2020. The increase was driven by current year retained earnings, slightly offset by a $3.1 million decrease in accumulated other comprehensive income as the increase in short and medium-term interest rates resulted in unrealized losses in our investment securities portfolio. The Bank’s capital ratio remains well above the regulatory definition for being Well Capitalized with a Tier 1 Leverage Ratio of 8.6% as of September 30, 2021.

September 29, 2021

Security Alert – Phishing URLs

Phishing URL

Unfortunately, phishing scams are not going away.  The use of business email compromise, smishing or text scams, and ransomware scams are still prevalent. However, the use of Phishing URLs has seen a sharp increase over the past year. Reported cases in April 2021 nearly tripled that of April 2020; 28,000 cases to over 63,000 cases.

Phishing URLs affect both businesses and consumers. This type of scam can generally be attributed to the increase in remote workers and the heavy use of convenient online services such as banking, shopping, and bill pay.

What is a Phishing URL?

A Phishing URL is a website domain or URL that appears to be the official website but has a slight variation. At a glance, the website address seems to be legitimate; however, it takes you to a different website. The scam website can mirror the legitimate website’s homepage, making this type of scam tricky for consumers and highly effective for criminals.

Examples of Phishing URLs:

  • Legitimate website URL: www.rivercitybank.com
  • Phishing URLs: www.river-citybank.com; www.rivercitybanking.com; www.river-city-bank.com
  • Legitimate URL: www.irs.gov
  • Phishing URLs: www.irs.org; www.irs.com; www.internalrevservice.gov

 

How Can You Avoid Phishing URLs?

  • Confirm the URL: Double and triple-check the website address before entering any credentials or clicking on links within the website.
  • Bookmark Frequently Used Sites: Use the bookmark or favorite’s functions to save frequently visited sites instead of conducting a web search each time. The bookmark will save the legitimate site, thus mitigating the risk of clicking on a Phishing URL.

For more information on cybersecurity, visit the River City Bank Safety and Security page.