A. Levy to Close 3 Branches to Reduce Costs : Finance: Officials blame the continuing recession for a decision to shut the oldest facility, in Camarillo, and 2 in Oxnard. The three shutdowns are planned for Oct. 22.

The Bank of A. Levy will close one of its branch offices in Camarillo and two branches in Oxnard as a cost-cutting measure in the face of a persistent recession, bank officials have announced.

Bank of A. Levy, the largest locally owned bank in Ventura County, has run into problems in recent months, posting $4.3 million in losses for the first six months of 1993. That compared with a midyear loss of $640,000 a year ago.

Bank officials said the branch closings bore no relation to the losses due to problem loans.

The bank’s mounting losses derive from problem loans and not from an excess of branches, said Marshall C. Milligan, the bank’s president. But, he added, in tough economic times like these, businesses should be looking to cut corners wherever they can.

“We’ve had 20 offices in Ventura County, which made sense when things were going well,” Milligan said. “But when you look at the situation in a harsher light, you see that there’s things you don’t really need to be doing.”

For the past year, federal bank examiners have been scrutinizing the bank for its management of problem loans--those made to borrowers who have missed payments and backed by collateral that has been devalued.

In re-examining the institution this year, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. officials said they found that more of the bank’s loans had developed problems and recommended the bank cut its number of problem loans substantially by June, 1994.

As part of the branch office closings, the Bank of A. Levy will be closing its oldest branch, at 2245 Ventura Blvd. in Camarillo, which opened in 1959, Milligan said. The two Oxnard branches that will close are at 629 Cooper Road and 2805 Vineyard Ave., he said.

The three branches will close Oct. 22, leaving the bank with 17 operating branches, he said. Milligan said the bank is trying to find jobs within the company for as many of the affected employees as possible.

Some of the closures will inconvenience neighboring customers. The Cooper Road branch is the closest bank for the largely Latino immigrant community in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood.

Maria C. Rodriguez, like many of the branch’s customers, said she keeps her money with the Bank of A. Levy because it is only a five-minute walk from her home. She said she does not own a car. To get to a downtown branch, Rodriguez said, she will have to make a 30-minute bus trip.

“All the stores I go to are right here,” Rodriguez said, standing on Cooper Road with her two children. “If I need money, I can just go into the bank and get money.”

Rodriguez said she works at the nearby Nabisco plant, packing chilies. Pretty soon, she lamented, “I will have to go downtown to cash my check, then come back to do my shopping.”

In Camarillo, bank customer Ken Briggs, 61, said it was not the closures themselves that worried him, but what they might mean for the bank as a whole.

“My concern is the health of the Bank of A. Levy,” said the Camarillo resident, who said he moved his account to the Bank of A. Levy when he came to the community 14 years ago. “I’m not planning on switching now, but the thought has crossed my mind.”

Offering a different perspective, Camarillo customer Herbert Y. Yen, 52, said he thought the closings showed sound business acumen.

“They have to cut down costs and (closing branches) sounds reasonable,” Yen said, standing outside the Ventura Boulevard office. “It used to be that you’d cross the street and a bank would have another branch there. That doesn’t make any sense.”

The branch, though, is an anchor for the surrounding Camarillo retail community on Ventura Boulevard, which has already seen at least three other store closures this year, merchants said.

“It will probably affect us a lot,” said Lillian Bianez, the cashier at Flanagan’s Flagship Bakery, two doors down from the bank. “The employees there come here, and the customers too, after they go to the ATM.”

Next door, at Beach Blvd Swimwear, manager Carol Fletcher said the bank’s closure might not affect her store directly, because it gets little walk-in traffic from the bank. Still, she said, “It’s not good.

“There’s so many shops that are closing,” she said. “Eventually, it’s going to affect business a lot because there’s not as many people walking up and down the street.”