Note 1 - The Business of the Company

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Disclosure Text Block [Abstract]

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 1. THE BUSINESS OF THE COMPANY

Bank of Commerce Holdings (the “Holding Company”), is a bank holding company (“BHC”) with its principal offices in Redding, California. The Holding Company’s principal business is to serve as a holding company for Redding Bank of Commerce (the “Bank” and together with the Holding Company, the “Company”) which operates under two separate names (Redding Bank of Commerce and Sacramento Bank of Commerce, a division of Redding Bank of Commerce). The Company has an unconsolidated subsidiary in Bank of Commerce Holdings Trust II. The Bank is principally supervised and regulated by the California Department of Business Oversight (“CDBO”) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”). Substantially all of the Company’s activities are carried out through the Bank. The Bank was incorporated as a California banking corporation on November 25, 1981. The Bank operates three full service offices in Redding, and one in Roseville, California.

The Bank conducts a general commercial banking business in the counties of El Dorado, Placer, Shasta, Sacramento, and Tehama, California. The Company considers Northern California to be the major market area of the Bank. The services offered by the Bank include those traditionally offered by commercial banks of similar size and character in California, including checking, interest bearing demand, savings and money market deposit accounts; commercial, real estate, and construction loans; travelers checks, safe deposit boxes, collection services, electronic banking activities, and payroll processing. The primary focus of the Bank is to provide services to the business and professional community of its major market area, including Small Business Administration loans and payroll processing. The Bank does not offer trust services or international banking services and does not plan to do so in the near future. Most of the customers of the Bank are small to medium sized businesses and individuals with medium to high net worth.

During the period of May 2009 through June 2012, the Holding Company owned a controlling interest in a full service mortgage company (Bank of Commerce Mortgage). On August 31, 2012 with an effective date of June 30, 2012, the Holding Company sold its entire ownership interest in the Mortgage Company, a residential mortgage banking company headquartered in San Ramon, California. See Note 25 Discontinued Operations in these Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, for further details relating to the sale of the mortgage subsidiary.