Rainier Bancorp

Rainier Tower, the former headquarters of Rainier Bank in Seattle

Rainier Bancorp was the Seattle-based parent corporation of Rainier National Bank, a Washington state-based bank with branches throughout the state. Rainier traced its roots back to the National Bank of Commerce, which was founded by Richard Holyoke in 1889. The name Rainier National Bank was adopted in 1974. Rainier Bancorp. expanded into Alaska with the purchase of People's Bank & Trust in 1983 and into Oregon in 1986, expanding further in Oregon in 1987 with the government assisted purchase of Lincoln S&L Assoc. After a brief bidding war with First Bank System, Rainier Bancorp. was acquired by Security Pacific Corp. in 1987. At the time of its acquisition, it was the second largest bank in the state.

In 1992 Security Pacific Bank merged with San Francisco-based BankAmerica (now called Bank of America), a deal that was at the time one of the largest bank mergers in history. Federal regulators, however, forced the divestiture of over half of the former Rainier Bank Washington state franchise (having been renamed Security Pacific Bank Washington, N.A. in 1989), as the combination of BankAmerica's Seafirst subsidiary and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the retail banking market in Washington state. While 82 branches were retained and consolidated with Seafirst, 38 were sold to West One Bancorp (now itself merged into U.S. Bancorp) and 48 to KeyBank.