By Eliza Ridgeway

Bay Area business Borel Private Bank and Trust Company expects to open a local branch in Los Altos in November. Senior Vice President Stephen Fick of Los Altos will manage the new branch at 345 S. San Antonio Road.

“Private banking really refers to relationship banking, having a personal contact at the bank to be your point person for any of your financial needs,” Fick said. “It’s an alternative to bigger styles of banking where you’re encouraged to use the Internet or ATMs, and not interact with a banker. We provide online banking and ATM networks, but we don’t force clients into any one channel of banking.”

The bank serves both individuals and businesses and welcomes clients from any financial background, without a “dollar threshold,” Fick said. “Our target demographic are those who appreciate our services and style of banking. Your banker becomes part of your financial team.”

Fick said that because Borel President and CEO John Conover is a resident of Los Altos Hills, and Fick and Chairman of the Board Sherie Dodsworth both live in Los Altos, familiarity with the market attracted the bank to town.

“A motivating factor is that there are three of us who just have involvement within the community and a strong network of friends, associates and relatives who live in the market,” Fick said.

The bank hopes to stand out from other area banks for the delivery and accessibility it adds to conventional banking products and services. “It comes down to having a relationship, and to some people that’s important,” Fick said. “When you have an issue, you talk to me, you don’t talk to a call center in the Midwest.

Fick’s great-great-grandfather Antoine Borel first began banking in the Bay Area in 1855 after immigrating from Switzerland. His descendents opened a community-style bank in 1980, and its first branch stands on Borel’s San Mateo estate. Fick’s father and uncle are still involved in the bank on the board level. He is the only member of the next generation in the business.

A public company as much as a family business, the bank is owned by Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. “The bank can maintain its autonomy in the market, make its own decisions, yet have the financial strength of a multibillion-dollar holding company behind us and access to affiliated companies for services we don’t offer,” Fick said. The bank refers clients to investment management services and financial planning groups Sand Hill Advisors Inc. and Bingham Osborn & Scarborough LLC.

“We spent a long time looking for the right place,” Fick said. “I’m happy to be working in the community in which I live - that’s kind of a dream come true, and not very common in the Bay Area.”

Borel will be occupying offices vacated by the Silicon Valley Board of Realtors, which moved from Los Altos to new Cupertino headquarters in late June.