EagleBank is a

community bank A community bank is a depository institution that is typically locally owned and operated. Community banks tend to focus on the needs of the businesses and families where the bank holds branches and offices. Lending decisions are made by people ...

headquartered in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

with operations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area including 12

branches A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includi ...

and four lending offices in Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, Maryland;

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

; and

Northern Virginia Northern Virginia, locally referred to as NOVA or NoVA, comprises several County (United States), counties and independent city (United States), independent cities in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. ...

. The bank has an above-above average exposure to

commercial real estate Commercial property, also called commercial real estate, investment property or income property, is real estate (buildings or land) intended to generate a profit, either from capital gains or rental income. Commercial property includes office bu ...

, with 81% of all loans secured by commercial real estate. The bank owns the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

to the

EagleBank Arena EagleBank Arena (originally the Patriot Center) is a 10,000-seat arena in the eastern United States, on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C. Opened in 1985, it is the home of Patrio ...

History

The bank was founded in 1998 under the

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Eagle Bancorp Inc, which was established in 1997 by Ronald D. Paul. Eagle Bancorp, Inc., was incorporated as a

bank holding company A bank holding company is a company that controls one or more banks, but does not necessarily engage in banking itself. The compound bancorp (''banc''/''bank'' + '' corp ration') or bancorporation is often used to refer to such companies as w ...

in Maryland on October 28, 1997. On June 9, 1998, the company became a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of share capital, stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) co ...

via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. On July 20, 1998, EagleBank opened its first office in

Rockville, Maryland Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth ...

. In the coming years, the bank opened several branches in the Washington, D.C. area. In December 2008, the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the Treasury, national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current United States federal executive departments, U.S. government departments. ...

purchased $38.2 million of assets from EagleBank as part of the

Troubled Asset Relief Program The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by U.S. Presi ...

. In 2010, EagleBank received $71.9 million funding so it could lend more to small businesses as part of the United States Department of Treasury's

Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 () is a federal law passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President of the United States, President Barack Obama on September 27, 2010. The law authorizes the creation of the Small Bu ...

. The funds were repaid to the US Treasury by EagleBank in 2015 after a stock sale. In 2013, EagleBank teamed with Graystone Consulting to provide

wealth management Wealth management (WM) or wealth management advisory (WMA) is an investment advisory service that provides financial management and wealth advisory services to a wide array of clients ranging from affluent to high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-hi ...

services. In March 2019, EagleBank's founder and CEO, Ron Paul, announced his retirement. Susan G. Riel was appointed CEO and President and Norm Pozez was appointed chairman. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the bank was a lender in the

Paycheck Protection Program The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a $953-billion business loan program established by the United States federal government during the First presidency of Donald Trump, Trump administration in 2020 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and ...

Notable Acquisitions

In September 2008, EagleBank bought Fidelity and Trust Bank in a $13.1 million transaction. In July 2011, EagleBank announced it would buy Alliance Bank for $31 million, but the transaction was called off five months later because they could not agree on the terms of the deal. In November 2014, EagleBank acquired Virginia Heritage Bank for $183 million.

Sponsorships

The bank owned the

to the 2008 EagleBank Bowl and the

2009 EagleBank Bowl The 2009 EagleBank Bowl was a college football bowl game. It marked the second edition of the EagleBank Bowl, played at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The game, in which UCLA of the Pacific-10 Conference defeated Temple of the Mid-American Conf ...

, later called the Military Bowl, a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

. The Bank purchased the

to the

in May 2015 in a partnership deal with

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

. EagleBank and

D.C. United D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

entered into a five-year partnership in 2018 that made EagleBank the official bank of D.C. United and created the EagleBank Club at

Audi Field Audi Field is a soccer-specific stadium in the Buzzard Point neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the home of D.C. United, DC Power FC, and Washington Spirit soccer teams, and the DC Defenders American football team. The stadium seats 20,000 p ...

Controversies

In 2011, the company was reported to be the source of legislation introduced by

Council of the District of Columbia The Council of the District of Columbia (or simply D.C. Council) is the legislative branch of the government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state and is overseen ...

member Jack Evans that would require the city's funds to be held at local banks. On July 18, 2019, the company's stock price fell as much as 25% after it disclosed that it had spent $2.7 million on legal fees related to the relationship between a former director and

member Jack Evans. It had previously been disclosed that Ron Paul had received a subpoena related to his relationship with Evans. In 2022, the company was ordered to pay $22.9M to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Reserve to settle claims the bank's former CEO had engaged in insider lending. Former EagleBank CEO Ron Paul has been banned permanently from working in the banking industry and he was fined about $521,000. The 2022 settlement ended a 3-year probe by regulators into alleged third-party lending and improper disclosures by EagleBank.

Awards and recognition

In 2020, the bank ranked second on the Women on Public Company Boards in Greater D.C. list by

American City Business Journals American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...

References

External links

{{Portal, Banks 1998 establishments in Maryland American companies established in 1998 Banks based in Maryland Banks established in 1998 Companies based in Bethesda, Maryland Companies listed on the Nasdaq