Company description

Fri, 21 Oct 2016 13:39:45 GMT

Banc of California, Inc. (BANC) provides comprehensive banking services to California's diverse businesses, entrepreneurs and communities. Banc of California operates over 100 offices in California and the West.

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Mon, 23 Jan 2017 15:55:04 GMT

BANC ($15.38) Banc of California disclosed this morning that on “January 12, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") issued a formal order of investigation directed at certain of the issues that BANC’s Special Committee is reviewing. Also on January 12, 2017, the SEC issued a subpoena seeking certain documents from the Company, primarily relating to the October 18, 2016 press release and associated public statements.”

In October of 2016, following allegations that senior management had ties to convicted fraudsters and after the company misled investors about the independence of an internal investigation it was running, GeoInvesting analyst Christopher Irons wrote an article stating that an “immediately regulatory intervention” could be on its way for the company. The article took exception with the fact that the company’s October 19th 8-K may have misled investors:

“Statements made in Banc of California’s 8-K exhibits filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 19, 2016 should be scrutinized at length by regulators and investors considering new evidence that was presented on Thursday by blogger Aurelius. If regulators find these statements half as potentially deceiving as I do, they should step in with subpoena power and get to the bottom of exactly what is going on with the management of Banc of California.”

This morning, after admitting to receiving a subpoena, BANC admitted in its press release that its internal investigation had found these statements to be inaccurate:

“Through the inquiry, however, the Special Committee has determined that a press release issued on October 18, 2016 contained inaccurate statements. In that press release, the Company stated that the "Board of Directors, acting through its Disinterested Directors" had, as of October 18, 2016, investigated issues raised in the blog post. This press release was inaccurate in certain respects. The review established that although an investigation had been conducted, it was not initiated by the Board of Directors; rather, it appears to have been directed by Company management rather than any subset of independent directors. In addition, the press release characterized the investigation as "independent" without disclosing that the law firm conducting the investigation had previously represented both the Company and the Company's CEO individually.“

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Fri, 21 Oct 2016 13:54:39 GMT

GeoInvesting Analyst Chris Irons has been following the Banc of California (BANC) story closely and this morning published a new article titled “Banc of California: New Revelations Should Catalyze Immediate Regulatory Intervention”.

The article that explains his stance that yesterday’s new revelations by Aurelius Value solidified his opinion that chances of a regulatory intervention have gone from “unlikely” to “extremely necessary” in the case of Banc of California. Chris makes his argument that the SEC should “step in with subpoena power and get to the bottom of exactly what is going on with the management of Banc of California”. Chris has no position in the company

You can read the full article here.

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