First Commercial Bank Name Comes to Northwest Arkansas

The First Commercial Bank name is coming to Northwest Arkansas, but don’t look for additional branches in Washington County until 1999.

That’s the word from Tom L. Wray, chairman, president and CEO of Farmers and Merchants Bank, which is being merged with Federal Savings Bank. Little Rock-based First Commercial already owned Farmers and Merchants Bank but announced late last year it would buy FSB, greatly expanding its presence in the northwest corner of the state.

The merger is expected to be completed on March 13, a Friday. The banks will reopen three days later under the First Commercial Bank name.

Wray says the merger is, thus far, going well, but “we probably will not do any further expansion in Benton and Washington counties in 1998. It will be well into the third quarter before the banks are put together. We want to make sure that’s … working well before we do any additional expansion.

“We’re hoping in a reasonable number of months, at least by 1999, we’ll be doing some expansion into Washington County,” he adds.

The merger will give First Commercial four branches each in Rogers and Fort Smith, one branch in Bentonville and a main bank in Rogers. Wray says about 85 percent of the employees in both companies have been retained.

The merger may mean expanded services for customers of both banks. Wray says residential loans will be a bigger part of the merged banks’ operations than previously at Farmers and Merchants. Also, FSB wasn’t active in agriculture or student lending nor was its commercial lending as large as Farmers and Merchants’.

Wray expects to see even more banks in the region when state laws governing branching are relaxed. Currently, banks are restricted to branching within the county in which they’re located or adjoining counties, but, beginning in January 1999, they’ll be allowed to branch throughout the state.

That change, he says, “could very well bring additional competitors” into the market.