California's Q2 bank earnings turned, and the hiring is already moving

Q2 earnings landed across California this month, and the banks I follow told a version of the same story. Credit is clearing. Commercial loan books are growing again, some faster than others. And one bank has already put a team on the ground for what it sees coming.

What the Q2 numbers said

Start with California BanCorp. Net income of about $14.3 million, loans up 3.8% to roughly $3.11 billion, and nonperforming loans down almost 71% in a single quarter after it worked out three commercial real estate credits. The problem loans came off the books and new commercial lending went on. That's the whole quarter in one sentence.

The pattern repeats with variations. Preferred Bank earned $33.5 million and grew loans by $125 million. Hanmi earned $23.5 million with nonperforming assets at 0.12% of total assets, about as clean as bank credit gets, though its loan book sat flat for the quarter. Different banks, same direction on credit.

Figures come from each bank's own Q2 2026 release, linked in the sources below.

Royal Business Bank showed its hand

Here's the move I'd actually circle from this earnings season. On July 13, RBB Bancorp's Royal Business Bank stood up a new commercial lending team and a loan production office in the San Francisco Bay Area.

They hired John Curtis to run it as EVP and Market President for Northern California, 37 years in the business. He brought two senior bankers with him, Yulan Wu and Inger Li, each with more than 25 years. A market president, two veteran producers, and a new office in Burlingame.

Banks don't staff like that on a whim. You hire a market president and a production team when you've decided to grow the book in a market you don't own yet. RBB looked at the same numbers everyone else did and moved first.

Why I read Q2 as a hiring window

There's a rhythm to this. When credit is going bad, banks pull in. They protect capital, staff up workout and special assets, and freeze production hiring. When the bad loans clear and the margin holds, the posture flips and they start competing for new relationships. Those relationships walk in the door with producers.

We're early in that second phase. The Q2 prints gave banks permission to lean back into lending, and a few have the clean credit and the capital to act on it. Curtis and his team are what acting on it looks like.

The rate backdrop is quiet. The Fed is expected to hold again at its July 29 meeting, its fifth straight, so what moved this quarter came from credit clearing and loan demand picking up. Both point the same way.

If you run a bank, or you're the banker

Two reads, depending on where you sit.

If you run a bank. Windows like this don't stay open. The good producers move while a handful of banks are hiring and comp hasn't reset yet. The team you can recruit in August costs more in February, once everyone's chasing the same dozen names. RBB just showed you the going rate is a market president and two producers at once.

If you're a producer. This is the part of the cycle where a move actually pays. The banks that sat on their hands through 2025 have budget and a mandate now. A clean landing looks a lot like the one Curtis just made.

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