It was a quiet Monday at the offices of the former Charter Bank of Santa Fe, which at the end of last week was purchased by Plano, Texas-based Beal Financial Corp. from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

That happened after the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, which oversees savings and loan institutions, shut down the old Charter Bank, apparently because it ran into problems with its commercial loan portfolio.

The new Charter Bank has two offices in Santa Fe and others in Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. A spokesman for Beal declined to disclose the number of depositors at the banks.

A security officer patrolled the inside of the Washington Avenue bank branch, apparently to forestall possible runs on the bank. None were reported to have occurred.

Passers-by of the same bank branch on Monday stopped to read pages of a news release from the FDIC that was taped to the windows. It detailed the takeover, while encouraging depositors not to withdraw their funds.

The new Charter Bank is a subsidiary of Beal Financial Corp. and a sister bank to Beal Bank and Beal Bank Nevada.

Charter's mortgage operation is part of the bank and was also taken over by Beal.

"We are strong believers in traditional community banking, and we're excited and delighted to have this opportunity to serve New Mexico," said Beal chief operating officer Rick Koretz, in a statement. "Customers of the former Charter Bank will benefit from the strength and stability of the Beal family of banks. We look forward to growing the new Charter Bank in the New Mexico market."

Beal Financial Corp.'s assets of about $10 billion are apparently what allowed it to take over Charter when no New Mexico bank could.

"I think it was an issue of scale," said Bryan "Chip" Chippeaux, chairman of Century Bank in Santa Fe. "There aren't any community banks of that size in New Mexico. The bank doing a takeover has to be larger than the bank being acquired."

The area's largest bank, Los Alamos National Bank, has $1.5 billion in assets, Chippeaux said.

"Even if a bank qualifies financially," he added, "where does it get the extra bodies to come in and do the work? It takes quite a few staffing resources to put something like (an acquisition) together."

The new Charter Bank assumed all deposits of the former Charter Bank, meaning there was no need for customers to change their banking relationships to retain their deposit insurance coverage, the statement from Beal said.

As customers of the new Charter Bank, borrowers and depositors "will be able to continue all their normal activities and can retain all of their accounts," the statement said.

"We kept the Charter Bank name because we like the name, but more importantly we like the franchise — where it's located, the range of services Charter Bank offers and the customers it attracts. We want to build on those strengths," Koretz said.

In other indications of business as usual, customers of the new Charter Bank can conduct business at Charter Bank's offices by mail or telephone. They may also access their accounts by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards.

In addition, checks will continue to be processed, and loan customers should continue to make their payments as before.

The new bank will continue routine servicing of checking and savings accounts and certificates of deposit.

Those with questions about the transaction may call the FDIC toll free at 800-323-6111.

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.