Rosso has been the president and CEO of PSB for the last 15 years and is one of the institution's founding members. Rosso has more than 22 years of experience in the industry, first starting with Bank of America in 1979-Though he honed his professional skills early while at BofA, Rosso also benefited from the mentoring of a local businessman when Rosso was the executive director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Receiving the benefit of the doubt from that local businessman has shaped the way Rosso now approaches business.

"One of the local businessmen gave me a chance," said Rosso. "That's what we try to do here at Pacific State Bank. We look for individuals who don't always bring the exact banking experience with them or who have not been recognized in their organizations and pirate them away to have them be career-oriented at Pacific State Bank." Though not an easy thing to accomplish, Rosso believes that this approach to one of the industry's main challenges ? recruiting and retaining highly educated and highly trained employees ? is a solid one and one that has paid off for PSB.

"We do a great deal of promotion and the bank's board of directors has been phenomenal at providing me with good leadership and strategic planning that has enabled the bank to grow in size. Pacific State Bank has the same challenges of a small business. We want individuals we recruit to be adequately trained and understand customer service, as well as acquire all the financial information necessary to make good and accurate banking decisions," Rosso said.

Though the challenge of recruiting and retention looms large for California 's community banks, there are other challenges as well, including making the community bank a fixture in the community. Every community bank is aware of the challenge, but not every community bank is able to address it as well as PSB.

"One of the largest issues a banker must address is the misperception that most banks are not community-orient-ed," said Rosso. "If you compare the amount of dollars a community bank like Pacific State Bank provides in opportunities for non-profit health and educational organizations, it is a phenomenal amount of dollars compared to other companies and financial institution types that don't provide funding. But members of the community don't know that. Our biggest challenge is to get information out about our banks and the banking community and the role it plays in every day business and family life."

One example of Pacific State Bank's commitment to its community is seen through the services it offers to the Latino population. "We consistently reinforce that this organization is multilingual, putting special emphasis on the Spanish-speaking community in our area," Rosso said.

Recently the bank was honored with the 2002 Leadership of Distinction Gold Medal Achievement Award from Saludos Hispanos/Saludos.com for leadership in providing opportunities for attainment and success in the Hispanic community. The award recognizes the bank for its achievements in fostering Hispanic leadership and reaching out to the Hispanic community. Rosemarie Garcia Solomon, publisher of Saludos Hispanos, presented the award.

"Pacific State Bank's Hispanic customers and employees participate intensively in events, programs and leadership development throughout the four counties we provide services for, which is a market of about one million people," Rosso added.

"Employees of Pacific State Bank speak about 20 different languages and regularly remind customers and potential customers of that so people of different ethnic origins feel com-for table doing business with us," said Rosso. "For instance, we have several employees who speak several different Indian dialects, in addition to French, Lebanese, Italian, Portuguese and a couple of Chinese dialects."

This diversity has translated into a definite market advantage and has generated new business relationships in otherwise untapped markets, such as the Buddhist organizations that now bring their business to Pacific State Bank.

Rosso also believes that the erosion of services or the blurring the lines of distinction between the different kinds of financial institutions remains a challenge for the industry.

"Credit unions are a serious competitor since they have a significant competitive edge through their tax exempt status, as well as the fact that many people do not understand the nuances of certain products, such as money market mutual funds, that have transactions issued through a broker-age company," said Rosso.

Even though these challenges are ongoing, Rosso, who currently sits on the California Bankers Association board of directors, thinks the industry will be stronger and healthier a year from now. He adds that a strong banking environment bodes well for an improving and growing economy.

But this optimistic prognostication doesn't mean that bankers should take it easy. In fact, Rosso believes that bankers need to become even more aggressive in preserving and improving their collective position.

"It is important to get the word out that bankers are okay and we are not the bad guys," said Rosso. "We are providing tremendous financial opportunities in our communities, not just in California , but throughout the country. Because of programs like Saludos Hispanos, we've taken pride in the things we've done to make sure people recognize the bank for that. There are a number of banks in our community that have outreach to a number of ethnically diverse and financially challenged individuals and organizations."

As one of CBA's more politically active members, Rosso understands the impact these messages have on elected officials and encourages each community bank to let their local officials know exactly what the banking industry is doing to improve the community.

Challenges or not, Rosso always has his eye on the bottom line of what community banking is all about. "Being a community bank is being a bank that has a niche and consistently provides that unique service."

And we're sure that Rosso's customers at Pacific State Bank would agree.