Until recently, North Coast residents usually chose to entrust their personal or business finances to the Bank of Astoria because they wanted the local, personalized service the homegrown bank provides. But it was a trade-off: Other out-of-state institutions offered far-reaching, high-tech account management services over the Internet for businesses and individuals. You could have one or the other, but not both.

All that changed last summer when Isidro Pena, vice-president/IT manager for Bank of Astoria, designed a Web site for the bank. Its clean layout and pages of helpful information tell customers about the bank’s products and services, and offer “cool stuff” like links to financial calculators, the Kelley Blue Book for cars, tax publications and more.

Financial technology firm Goldleaf Technologies runs the online banking portion of the site, where customers can view their accounts, transfer funds, generate reports, pay bills; businesses can even put out their entire payroll through direct deposit online and never put pen to paper. Pena, who’s a convert to electronic bill paying himself, said that online banking is really beginning to catch on. “The convenience is so incredible,” he commented.

BOA employs one staff member dedicated to serving online customers and keeping the site content updated.