A new and improved community bank
The year 2009 was not a good one for banks in the United States. From the Pacific Northwest to Florida, banks across the country were failing at an alarming rate.
In spite of that, a group of farsighted (and perhaps contrarian) citizens of Southwest Louisiana successfully pursued and obtained a charter for a new local bank with a familiar name: Lakeside Bank. Remarkably, no other charters were granted anywhere in the U.S. that year or the following year or the following year or even the following year — not until December 2013, in fact.
How did Lakeside succeed where so many others failed?
In hindsight, the answer is clear. Lakeside had all the ingredients of a winning combination: strong financial backing, a conservative business plan, an experienced management team and an exceptional board of directors with records of proven business success.
Our bank opened on Nelson Road in Lake Charles in a double-wide mobile unit in July 2010. From those humble beginnings, our rise has been steady. We moved into our permanent, new main office in spring 2012, opened our Oak Park office in 2014, opened our Westlake branch in 2015 and installed a temporary unit in Sulphur in December 2017 while beginning construction on our permanent branch building there.
During this time, Lakeside has been recognized as one of Top 300 Safest Banks in the nation and has been listed in the Top 200 Healthiest Banks in the country for three years running.
The Federal Reserve and the Office of Financial Institutions State of Louisiana have approved Lakeside’s application to form a holding company, which will enable the bank to continue its growth as we do what has made us successful since the very beginning: taking care of our customers with solid, dependable local banking.
