Sierra Bancorp is the holding company for Bank of the Sierra, a community bank headquartered in Porterville, California. The bank offers standard retail and commercial banking services to individuals and businesses across California's South San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast, and Ventura County through 34 full-service branches. Like most community banks, Sierra Bancorp earns money primarily on net interest income — the spread between interest earned on loans and investments and interest paid on deposits. Real estate loans dominate the loan portfolio at roughly 72%, with commercial real estate secured by office, retail, and hotel/motel properties making up the bulk. The bank also runs a mortgage warehouse lending business — short-term loans to mortgage companies funding newly originated mortgages until they can be sold to secondary market buyers — which represents about 20% of total loans. The mortgage warehouse book is funded with wholesale borrowings and is sensitive to mortgage origination volumes. The bank holds $2.9B in deposits, primarily retail deposits, which tend to be lower-cost than wholesale funding. Tulare County is the bank's primary market, where it holds the top deposit market share position. The broader Central Valley geography creates exposure to agricultural cycles, water availability, and commodity prices. Sierra Bancorp's growth strategy combines organic loan and deposit growth with potential acquisitions, having completed four whole-bank acquisitions historically, most recently in 2018.