Fifth Third Bank's headquarters tower in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. The bank, founded in 1858, opened its first California branch in Fresno this month as part of a planned 85-location statewide expansion. Photo by EEJCC via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

When Geraud Smith, Fifth Third Bank’s region president for Northern California, talks about why the Cincinnati-based bank chose Fresno over San Francisco or Los Angeles to launch its California expansion, he doesn’t lean on data tools or deposit projections. He talks about relationships.

“We’re not as big as the four giant money-center banks, but we have the same product lineup with a more down-home, Midwest approach that’s really relationship-focused,” Smith said. “It’s not always about the metrics. It has to do with relationships.”

 

Smith spoke with the Business Journal about the opening of Fifth Third’s first California branch at 7160 N. First St. in Northeast Fresno — a 4,950-square-foot space in the former Chase Bank building that marks the bank’s first de novo branch in the state, meaning the first built from the ground up rather than acquired through the bank’s February merger with Comerica Inc.

He said the Valley’s economic scale made the choice straightforward.

“It made just perfect sense to start in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley. There’s a tremendous amount of commerce in the Valley, and to some degree it’s somewhat underbanked,” Smith said.

Agriculture is central to the bank’s Valley strategy. Smith said Fifth Third has booked more than $600 million in commitments over the past 18 months, roughly 60% of it agriculturally focused — farmers, processors, marketers and companies that move agricultural products. The bank has joined the American Pistachio Growers, Western Growers Association and the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California as an associate member, and is a corporate partner of Ag One at Fresno State.

“If we’re going to be relevant in the Valley, production ag and ag-adjacent businesses are the cornerstone of our communities,” Smith said.

Smith brings deep regional roots to the role — he spent 20 years as a regional manager with Wells Fargo and served as president and CEO of Valley Republic Bank in Bakersfield before joining Fifth Third.

The Fresno branch is the first of 85 planned California locations. By 2027, the bank plans to rebrand the California branches it inherited through its Comerica merger, which created the ninth-largest bank in the country with about $294 billion in total assets. The branch represents the bank’s first retail presence in a state where it already has an established business banking footprint — Fifth Third expanded its Central Valley lending team in 2025 and added a second office in the region.

As for the bank’s unusual name — it traces to 1908, when Cincinnati’s Fifth National Bank and Third National Bank merged. Legend has it that management put “Fifth” before “Third” deliberately: “Third Fifth” sounded a little too much like a liquor order during an era when the Prohibition movement was gaining steam.