Community Banks of Colorado officially bought Pine River Valley Bank on July 31, and local clients were switched to their new computer system on Oct. 12.
The transition had a few hiccups, said Patricia Maxon, a regional president with the bank. Those included a letter to the editor in the Times from a frustrated client, David W. Brown, who couldn't access his account online. He wrote another letter in today's edition saying the problem has been worked out. About half of the bank's local customers are online now, Maxon said. The volume of telephone calls after Columbus Day was higher than expected, but is now down to normal.
Problems have been worked out for the most part, and clients will start liking the new system and its advanced features, Maxon predicted.
Those include mobile deposit services - customers will be able to take a photo of a check and it will be deposited in their account.
The system has bettter online navigation, and the bill pay feature on a mobile application is easier to use, she said.
The Bayfield and Durango locations now have expanded lobby hours, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and the drive up is open those hours, and until 6 p.m. on Fridays. The bank also will be open from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
Community Banks of Colorado is based in Denver and has had a Durango branch on Second Avenue since 2001.
"The acquisition made great sense," said Maxon, who oversees all of the banks in Southwest Colorado from her office in Telluride. CBC has 53 locations on the Front Range as well as branches in Antonito, Alamosa, Buena Vista, Cortez, Del Norte, Gunnison, Buena Vista, San Luis and South Fork. The sale also included the two Miners and Merchant Banks that Pine River Valley Bank owned in Lake City and Creede.
With 53 banks in Colorado, access to branches around the state is a big convenience for many customers, she said.
CBC also offers home mortgages, a service PRVB hadn't been able to offer.
With mortgage rates going up, Maxon said it's a good time to talk with a banker about a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
CBC also is a preferred lender with the Small Business Administration, which means "we can move things through quicker" with cerain types of business loans, Maxon said.
Community banks is a division of National Bank Holdings, based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, which operates Bank Midwest in Missouri and Kansas, as well as Hillcrest Bank, a smaller group with two banks in Dallas and Austin, Texas. NBH has a total of 97 banks, $4.9 billion in assets, and $614 million in capital.
