8-K

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

December 3, 2003

Date of Report (Date of Earliest Event Reported)

FIRST COMMUNITY BANCORP

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter)

CALIFORNIA

(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)

00-30747	33-0885320
(Commission File Number)	(IRS Employer Identification No.)
6110 El Tordo PO Box 2388 Rancho Santa Fe, California 92067
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(858) 756-3023
(Registrant’s Telephone Number, including Area Code)

The information in this Current Report on Form 8-K, including the exhibits, is furnished pursuant to Item 9 and shall not be deemed “filed” for the purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section.  Furthermore, the information in this Current Report on Form 8-K, including the exhibits, shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into the filings of First Community Bancorp under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Item 7.Financial Statements, Pro Forma Financial Information and Exhibits.

The following exhibits are furnished as part of this report:

99.1Text of interview conducted with Matthew P. Wagner, President and CEO of First Community Bancorp, that is being made available to current and prospective investors attending the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey 10^th Annual Investor Conference in New York, NY on December 2-3, 2003.

99.2Copy of presentation First Community Bancorp intends to provide to current and prospective investors on December 3, 2003 at the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey 10^th Annual Investor Conference in New York, NY.

Item 9.Regulation FD Disclosure.

On December 3, 2003, Matthew P. Wagner, President and CEO of First Community Bancorp, is scheduled to make a presentation to current and prospective investors at a conference in New York, NY sponsored by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey. Attached as Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 of this Form 8-K are copies of the written material which will be made available at the conference by First Community Bancorp.

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SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

Dated: December 3, 2003
	FIRST COMMUNITY BANCORP
	By:	/s/ Jared M. Wolff
		Name:	Jared M. Wolff
		Title:	Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary

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Exhibit Index

Exhibit Number	Description
99.1	Text of interview conducted with Matthew P. Wagner, President and CEO of First Community Bancorp, that is being made available to current and prospective investors attending the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey 10th Annual Investor Conference in New York, NY on December 2-3, 2003.
99.2	Copy of presentation First Community Bancorp intends to provide to current and prospective investors on December 3, 2003 at the Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Investor Conference in New York, NY.

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EX-99.1

Exhibit 99.1

*****

THE WALL STREET TRANSCRIPT

*****

67 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005

VOICE: (212) 952-7400      FAX: (212) 668-9842; (212) 668-9858

Copyright 2003 WALL STREET TRANSCRIPT CORPORATION

All Rights Reserved

Website: http//www.twst.com        E-mail: transcript@twst.com

FBR09

October 30, 2003

MATHEW P. WAGNER

President & CEO

First Community Bancorp

120 Wilshire Blvd.

Santa Monica, CA 90401

(310) 458-1521 x271

(310) 451-4555 - FAX

www.firstcommunitybancorp.com

TWST: Give us a very brief history of First Community Bancorp and tell us about your operations today.

Mr. Wagner: First Community Bancorp was formed in the year 1999 and initially served as a holding company for two banks, one based in the desert, near Palm Springs and one based in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They were merged to form First Community Bancorp. Since then we’ve purchased nine other banks and they have been merged into two subsidiary banks, Pacific Western Bank and First National Bank. Pacific Western National Bank and is based in Los Angeles and First National Bank is based in San Diego. We have a total of 32 branches, 13 of which are in the San Diego County under the banner of First National Bank, and 19 of which are branches of Pacific Western National Bank located throughout Los Angeles, Orange Riverside and San Bernardino Counties.

TWST: What is your total asset base, your total deposit base, and where are most of your loans concentrated?

Mr. Wagner: The total asset base is $2.4 billion, and the total deposit base is just short of $2 billion. Our loans are approximately 60% income property related – real  estate both construction and standing mini-perm loans and the rest is all C&I lending. We have a very small amount of consumer lending.

TWST: The last time you spoke to us in December, you had a very optimistic outlook on the economy of California. Now you have a new governor elect. Does that impact any of your operations? How would you characterize California’s economy at this juncture and the impact that it can have on your portfolio?

Mr. Wagner: We can talk about the California economy, but I think it’s more important for us to talk about Southern California, since most of our business is in Southern California. In terms of the California economy generally, there have been some challenges, though we haven’t necessarily felt the impact of these challenges directly in Southern California. Major issues continue to be the State budget deficit, the rising costs of workers compensation and health insurance, and these latter issues, in particular, could eventually prove to be catalysts for businesses to move from California. Notwithstanding these larger issues, I don’t think we felt much impact from them because we are a small to mid-size player in such a substantial market.  I am optimistic about California being able to solve its problems, including our most recent wildfire disasters, but again I don’t think it has really impacted our business in any great way.

TWST: So you are very confident that the real estate loans that the bank has are quite well secured?

Mr. Wagner: I think real estate continues to perform extremely well in Southern California. I can’t speak for the rest of California and the nation, but I think there are a couple of reasons. We still have people coming here and they still need places to live and to work. Affordable housing has been booming because of the interest rate environment. Our real estate has done well because of the low interest rate environment and also I think just a lot of people have shifted their investable assets from perhaps a stock portfolio or the bond market to real estate assets.

TWST: Your bank has been very aggressive in acquisitions and there have been absolutely no de novo banks on the part of First Community Bancorp. Could you explain that strategy to us and your future stance on acquisition?

Mr. Wagner:  De novo branches are a very difficult thing, or even more difficult would be a de novo stand-alone bank. De novo banks traditionally require a long breakeven period, probably two years at best, but the average cumulative breakeven point is probably closer to five years. That never has seemed to make sense to me. A de novo branch probably has a cumulative breakeven point of two and a half to three

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years. Again, that doesn’t necessarily seem like a good strategy to me, particularly if you have the opportunity to buy the bank across the street and to consolidate their branches into ours and strive toward larger branch size in terms of deposits.  Our acquisition strategy is pretty simple. It’s opportunistic. If a deal comes to us or we source a deal and it makes sense for our shareholders, we’ll do it. Typically, our targets fit our profile of being a commercial bank, mostly business banking versus retail banking, with a deposit base that somewhat mirrors our deposit base or one we could shift to mirror ours.  Obviously we need to be able to buy it for the right price. What we prefer to do is buy the bank across the street because of the consolidation benefits.

TWST: Have you realized the full efficiencies of the integration of the banks that you have acquired?

Mr. Wagner: No, not completely, but we are not far away from doing that. In terms of cost takeouts — hard dollar costs, whether that be people or systems —  I would say the vast majority of that’s done. Every bank that we have purchased so far is fully integrated into our systems platforms, the most recent of which was the Verdugo Banking Company that we bought on August 22^nd, and which we fully integrated within days of its purchase. Typically, over the 12 months following an acquisition, we change a variety of things which enhance our cost savings and efficiencies.  We review the loan portfolio and restructure or change it to the extent necessary to fit our loan culture. We reprice deposits to reflect more of our deposit base, which is heavily non-interest bearing.

TWST: Who would you consider as your competition out there in the area that you are operating in? What would you consider as your strengths and advantages?

Mr. Wagner: I think the competition varies between our two banks. In San Diego, you have two kinds of competition. You have the very big banks, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp. They, I think, are competitive because of their size and their types of products. They are particularly good on the retail side, which isn’t something we care much about anyhow. But they don’t have the local feel and that is very important down in San Diego. Our other major competition in San Diego is start up community banks.  I don’t know the exact number, but I believe there could be as many as 15 new de novo banks started in San Diego County since the year 2000.  As banks were purchased and assimilated into large non-San Diego

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banks, new banks popped up. So you get a lot of competition from them both, not only for your banking customers but also for good employees. So that’s how I would characterize the San Diego market.

The Los Angeles market is much more bifurcated. You have mega banks like Wells Fargo, US Bancorp, Union Bank, Bank of the West, and then there are mid-tier banks, which generally have been ethnic banks with the exception of City National. Then there are all kinds of different community banks that are very regionally focused. So you’ve got a little bit of everything here. The competition is fierce, but I think the real advantage any community bank has against the big banks is the relationship focus, which really distinguishes it from a retail bank. Community banks don’t deliver their commercial products like retail products and they are not product-driven but relationship-driven. And I think that’s our real advantage. We are very responsive to our customers, our credit decisions are made very quickly and we have decentralized most of management with some centralized oversight.

TWST: Is that the big incentive for somebody opening an account at one of  First Community Bancorp branches versus another community bank?

Mr. Wagner: Yes, our expertise in certain types of commercial lending as well as real estate lending, our responsiveness and our ability to deliver quickly.  Additionally, our customers have access to the most senior management.

TWST: How have you been able to keep up your interest margin in such a low interest rate environment?

Mr. Wagner: One of the things that we do when we buy a bank is drop CD rates aggressively because that’s not the kind of deposit base with which to build a core franchise. So we tend to run off that money. We price all of our deposits at the lower end of the market, probably the third-quartile, and we are aggressive about it and act very quickly.

We also try to preserve our net interest margin through the credit side, which is the asset generation side of our business.  With respect to credit, we have two major principles. First and foremost is credit discipline. You don’t want to make mistakes, you have to underwrite as rigorously as possible.  Second is our pricing. We won’t match the market on a lot of products because we believe we can get paid a premium by delivering a better product to our customer. So we won’t go for the lowest rate. If we hear the

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lowest rate in town is x for a particular type of real estate loan, for example, we don’t jump to match the number.

TWST: How do you make it up on the product side? What are the different products that you’ve introduced to draw a client to pay higher interest rates on his own?

Mr. Wagner: Again we are not product-driven, we are relationship-driven. If a customer can come to us and get a quick answer, a yes or a no on a deal, that’s a big advantage for customers. If we can close the loan much quicker than if they go through a Wall Street conduit or go through the process of trying to book a deal with a major bank which has layers and layers of bureaucracy, that’s where our advantage is.

TWST: When you open a bank and you drop your CD rates, you apparently lose the depositors. How do you appraise them?

Mr. Wagner: What we do is refocus the relationship managers. What we lose are depositors that generally wouldn’t fit our mold anyhow, because they tend to be consumers who are chasing rates. We refocus our relationship managers on what it is that is important to our formula of banking, and that’s core deposits which are typically less rate sensitive.

TWST: What are some of the opportunities that lie ahead for you?

Mr. Wagner:  We are focused on growing loans and core deposits, controlling expenses, and ultimately increasing earnings per share and value for our shareholders.  We focus on these fundamentals every day.

TWST: What about the fact that the yield curve has steepened, has that had any impact on the bank at all?

Mr. Wagner: Not really because we are not a residential mortgage lender or long-term lender. We are generally a prime-based lender so it doesn’t really have a big impact. It’s a matter of what the Fed does with the discount rates.

TWST: In his recent Fed statement, Greenspan said that he intends to keep rates low for the foreseeable future. Do you really believe that is what would happen?

Mr. Wagner: If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be doing this interview, I would be sitting on the beach. I don’t know that we can predict what Mr. Greenspan would do, and I wouldn’t even want to

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try to. That being said, it’s hard to see where rates could go lower.  I don’t think that there is much chance that rates are going to go down much further, they could but not much.  Additionally, I think all of us believe that it’s probably not realistic to suspect the rates to be at the all time low since 1958 for a very long period of time anyway. So I don’t know if it’s in 2004 or 2005, but eventually rates will creep up.

TWST: Could you share with us your short-term financial outlook and your long-term financial goals?

Mr. Wagner: We don’t give guidance. Our focus has always been on increasing earnings per share and maximizing value for our shareholders.

TWST: What are the analysts’ expectations?

Mr. Wagner: I think you have to look at their reports, and we are covered by three different analysts, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods and Stifel Nicolaus. I think their numbers are all identical, but we really don’t comment on their expectations because we don’t give guidance.

TWST: Do you have any long-term growth projections for the bank?

Mr. Wagner: Again, I think that borders on guidance and we don’t do that.

TWST: What besides the interest rate environment and the economy do you consider as the biggest obstacles to success for your bank?

Mr. Wagner: I don’t think that we really have any. There are a lot of catastrophic things you can come up with. A major earthquake wouldn’t be a good thing for anybody in California. I think it’s all just out in front of us. We are focused on growing loans and core deposits and that’s what we work for every day.

TWST: What sort of corporate culture have you tried to develop at the bank?

Mr. Wagner: I think the culture is pretty simple. First of all, everybody is very accountable and they have to perform or they don’t get to stick around. Our business model is very, very simple. We don’t have a lot of moving parts to it. It’s about gathering core deposits from business banking customers and making loans that pay back. Credit is king around here. We are conservative in our underwriting.  When we buy a bank, we always inherit a few problem loans, and we aggressively manage our way out of those. Those are the themes that drive our culture.

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TWST: Do you expect any significant near-term changes to your balance sheet structure?

Mr. Wagner: No.

TWST: How would you characterize your balance sheet at this point?

Mr. Wagner: On the deposit side we are 39% DDA. Our overall costs of deposits just reported for the third quarter was 45 basis points, which is remarkably low. I don’t think we’ll see a dramatic change to the liability side. In terms of the asset side, our loan to deposit ratio is 78%. As we achieve loan growth, we would like to see our loan-to-deposit ratio increase over time, more into the neighborhood of 85%, maybe a little bit higher than that. We would like to achieve that, while still growing our deposit base. Obviously, there are two ways to get there. Other than that I don’t see any big changes to our balance sheet.

TWST: Is your dividend policy fairly standard or do you review it every quarter?

Mr. Wagner: We don’t review it every quarter. We review it twice a year.

TWST: Currently, what’s your dividend rate?

Mr. Wagner: It’s $0.75 a share annually, and I think the yield is around 2.10% based on our current stock price of $36.00 per share

TWST: Do the financial markets give you recognition for where you have come and where you are going, in your opinion?

Mr. Wagner: I believe we are understood by our investors.  You always want your stock to go up higher, but our stock has increased steadily as we have continued to perform. If you look back, we did a follow-on offering in July of 2002 and it was priced at $24.50 and since then we have grown organically and through acquisitions and increased earnings per share.  Our stock has performed nicely, but we always want to do better and as we continue to earn more for our shareholders we hope the market will recognize that.

TWST: Do you have any special investor relations program to get your message out to shareholders?

Mr. Wagner: No, we don’t and we don’t really intend to change that. We don’t have a dedicated investor relations contact. I am the primary person, along with Vic Santoro, our Chief Financial Officer. I think we are fairly well known by our investor base and particularly institutional investors, and it seems to have worked pretty well for us. We don’t do anything very fancy.

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TWST: What message would you like to give to the shareholders?

Mr. Wagner: It’s consistent with what we have always said. First Community Bancorp is a community bank focused in Southern California, in the triangle from Los Angeles to Palm Springs in the desert to San Diego in the south. We are a business bank. We are a bank that essentially is very simple in nature and we gather deposits and make loans that pay back. We don’t do a lot of fee-based or fee-driven business and we don’t intend to start doing that at this point. Credit is a big part of what we are about here. We make loans that pay back and that is very important. It’s not much more sexy than that. That’s about as simple as it gets.

TWST: Thank you. (WT)

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EX-99.2

Exhibit 99.2

Searchable text section of graphics shown above

First Community Bancorp

Rancho Santa Fe, CA

presentation to

FBR 10^th Annual Investor Conference

December 3, 2003

[LOGO]

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Forward-Looking Statements

This presentation contains, and from time to time our management may make, statements that are ‘‘forward-looking statements’’ within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements.  Such statements are subject to certain risks and assumptions about future events, which by their nature are inherently uncertain and out of our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in our forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and assumptions, include, but are not limited to, those discussed in our Form 10-K for fiscal year ended December 31, 2002, under Item 1 ‘‘Business Certain Business Risks’’, as well as the following factors: the possibility that personnel changes will not proceed as planned; planned acquisitions and relative cost savings cannot be realized or realized within the expected time frame; revenues are lower than expected; competitive pressure among depository institutions increases significantly; the integration of acquired businesses costs more, takes longer or is less successful than expected; the cost of additional capital is more than expected; changes in the interest rate environment reduces interest margins; general economic conditions, either nationally or in the market area in which First Community does business, are less favorable than expected; legislation or regulatory requirements or changes adversely affect First Community’s business; changes that may occur in the securities markets; and other risks that are described in First Community’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.  If any of these uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, First Community’s results could differ materially from First Community’s expectations as set forth in these statements.  First Community assumes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements.

Investors and security holders are urged to read First Community Bancorp’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 and other documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The documents filed by First Community with the Commission may be obtained at First Community Bancorp’s website at www.firstcommunitybancorp.com or at the Commission’s website at www.sec.gov.  These documents may also be obtained free of charge from First Community by directing a request to: First Community Bancorp c/o Pacific Western Bank, 275 North Brea Boulevard, Brea, CA 92821.  Attention: Investor Relations. Telephone 714-671-6800.

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Stock Summary

NASDAQ Symbol	FCBP
Fully Diluted Shares	15.89 Million*
Market Capitalization	$568.4 Million **
Average Volume	37,318 shares per day **
Dividends Per Share (Annualized)	$0.75 per year (2.10% yield) **
Analyst Coverage	Friedman Billings Ramsey
	Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.
	Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc.

*Fully diluted shares as of 9/30/03

**Per share price of $35.65 and data as of 11/19/03

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Investment Hypothesis

•A growing economy drives organic growth

•Small/medium sized businesses represent a large fragmented market

•Aggressive expense management is critical in consolidating businesses like banking

•Keep the business model simple

•Great execution beats great strategy

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Market Area

First Community Bancorp believes that a strong area of regional commerce and recreation exists in the geographic triangle that extends from Los Angeles to Palm Springs to San Diego

[GRAPHIC]

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A Growing Economy is Essential for Strong Organic Growth

•Southern California is the 11th largest economy in the world*

•Diversity of industries, population growth, substantial international trade and a large, well-trained workforce are growth drivers

•Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino were among the ten fastest growing counties in the U.S. in 2002**

•The size and diversity of the region has provided a foundation for solid organic growth and the transformation of FCBP’s balance sheet

Source:* Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation, www.laedc.info/pdf/Forecast-2003-07.pdf

** Forbes http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2002/09/16/rtr722323.html

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Small/Medium-sized Businesses Represent a Fragmented Market for Banks

•The large banks are focused on selling standardized products and services

•A large market exists for personalized service with unique solutions to the problems faced by small/medium-sized businesses

•Most customers seeking highly personalized services are somewhat insensitive to price

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Expense Management is Critical in Consolidating Businesses Like Banking

•Revenue can fluctuate, but expenses can be managed

•Effective expense management must focus on each component of operating cost:

•Interest

•Operating

•Credit

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Funding Mix Provides the Architecture for Managing Interest Expense

	California Banks *		First Community 9/30/03
Deposit Mix
Non-Interest	21	%	39	%
Other Transaction	39	%	43	%
CDs	33	%	17	%
Borrowings**	7	%	1	%

*Source: SNL DataSource and represents the average of all California based banks as of 6/30/03

**Excludes trust preferred securities

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Pricing Discipline Delivers the Benefits of a Good Deposit Mix

•First Community seeks to price each of its deposit types in the third quartile among its peers

•Deposit changes are monitored continuously to understand sensitivity to pricing decisions

•Borrowings are only used to cover short-term funding needs or financing for certain acquisitions

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Net Interest Margin has Remained Stable Despite the Dramatic Decline in Rates

[CHART]

*Source: SNL DataSource and represents the median of all California-based banks.

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The Rapid Assimilation of Acquisitions is Important in the Management of Expense

•All acquisitions have been fully integrated

•Redundant expenses have been eliminated

•Policies and procedures have been standardized

•Priority is given to acquisitions that provide targeted benefits to improving operational efficiency

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Good Execution and Focused Resource Deployment Have Led to Improvements in Efficiency

Efficiency Ratio *	Noninterest Expense to Assets **
[CHART]	[CHART]

* Total noninterest expense as a percentage of net interest income and noninterest income

**Total noninterest expense to average assets

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The First Community Model Combines Excellence in Customer Service with Centralized Administrative Support

•Loan decisions are made by local managers

•Area Presidents

•Regional Chief Credit Officer

•Administrative functions are centralized

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Credit Expense can be Controlled by Sound Underwriting and the Discipline of not Chasing Yield

Nonperforming to Loans & OREO	Reserves to Nonaccrual
[CHART]	[CHART]

Nonperforming assets continue to trend downward despite the acquisition of certain banks with troubled portfolios while reserves remain strong

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Great Execution Beats Great Strategy

Earnings Per Share

[CHART]

* Analyst 2003 EPS estimates as of 11/19/03

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Financial Progress for 2003

	At or YTD 09/30/03		At or YTD 12/31/02
ROAA	1.42	%	1.14	%
Efficiency	55.3	%	65.9	%
Net Interest Margin	5.31	%	5.41	%
Nonperforming Assets to Loans and OREO	0.61	%	0.93	%

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First Community is Well-Positioned for the Future

•Experienced management team

•Excellent market characteristics

•Disciplined management process

•Simple business model

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First Community Stock has been a Strong Performer

[CHART]

Data as of 11/19/03

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First Community Bancorp

Rancho Santa Fe, CA

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