Roundup: LandAmerica Acquires California Bank for Escrow Deposits.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. here has agreed to purchase a California-based financial institution, Orange County Bancorp, and use the depository as a place to hold some of its escrows.

Right now, the title company has relationships with a number of banks where it places the escrows. G. William Evans, chief financial officer at LandAmerica, said once the deal is completed in the fourth quarter, his company would still utilize its bank relationships for many of the escrow accounts.

Orange County's subsidiary, Centennial Bank, Fountain Valley, Calif., has one branch with assets of $239.8 million. It sources most of its passbook savings and certificate of deposit accounts through the Internet. At the end of last year, it had $194 million in deposits.

The bank earned $3.8 million in 2002. It is a state-chartered industrial bank. LandAmerica will pay $27.6 million to acquire 100% of the outstanding stock. Orange County stock is not publicly traded.

Mr. Evans noted that Centennial makes small commercial real estate loans, using commercial mortgage brokers to bring the product in. LandAmerica expects to continue using that model, he said.

Furthermore, it is not looking to use the bank to expand into the residential mortgage origination business.

Centennial had $203.2 million in real estate loans in its portfolio, of which $139 million was commercial real estate and an additional $30.7 million was multifamily, according to a report on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. website.