Decided locally
Every loan over $250,000 is reviewed by a committee that meets in Portland on Tuesdays. Nobody in another time zone has a vote.
About Meridian Trust
Sixty-four years, three branches, one answer to the merger question.
Meridian Trust Bank was chartered in Salem in 1962 by eleven Willamette Valley farmers and shopkeepers who were tired of travelling to Portland to be told no. The founding deposit was $212,000. The first loan, for a Woodburn hop farm's new dryer, is still framed in the Salem branch.
We opened in Portland in 1987 and in Bend in 2009. We have never been acquired, never been bailed out, and never closed a branch. In 2021 a national bank offered to buy us for a price that would have made every shareholder comfortable. Our board, chaired by a retired appellate judge, spent three months talking to staff and customers and declined. Eleanor Hastings explains why on her page.
What we do is simple. We take deposits from Oregonians and lend them to other Oregonians: a hazelnut orchard waiting seven years for its first crop, a restaurant bridging a slow winter, a nurse buying her first house. Every one of those decisions is made in this state by a person whose name and phone number are on this website.
Values we can point to
Paid for service
Half of leadership bonuses depend on customer satisfaction and complaint resolution. Dr. Anita Sharma designed the model; it's public.
Mistakes reviewed, not hidden
Every error is logged with an ID you can quote to us. The audit committee reviews them the way a hospital reviews a bad outcome.
One page, plain English
Our CFO publishes a one-page explanation of the balance sheet every quarter. Priya insists it stays one page.
“Every loan is a family at a kitchen table. I've been that family. We don't forget it here.”
Daniel Reyes, President & Chief Executive Officer
“Independence isn't a slogan. It's a decision the board makes again every time someone offers to buy it.”
Hon. Eleanor Hastings (Ret.), Chair of the Board