Arvest Plans New Bank Charter for Fort Smith Area

Arvest Bank Group is expanding into Fort Smith, and that’s a move that will put some banking interests of two of the state’s wealthiest families – the Waltons and the Stephens – into direct competition.

Arvest recently received regulatory approval to open a Bank of Bentonville branch in the Wal-Mart Supercenter at Fort Smith. But Bank of Bentonville’s president, David Short, says a branch isn’t the bank’s long-term goal.

“Our interest in Fort Smith is not ultimately to have a branch of the Bank of Bentonville but to have a freestanding charter,” Short says. “We’d like to see [a new charter granted] by year end.”

John Womack, a Fort Smith native who’s worked in Oklahoma in recent years, has been named president of Arvest’s Fort Smith operations. He hopes to have four Arvest locations in the Fort Smith area within a year.

“We’re in the heat of negotiating on a couple of pieces of property,” Womack says. “Our plans are to have two locations and two [Wal-Mart] Supercenter locations.”

Womack says branching into the area through the Bank of Bentonville’s charter was one of several options Arvest considered before opening in Fort Smith. Ultimately, that route was chosen to speed Arvest’s entry into the market – it can’t apply for a new bank charter without an address and it won’t have an address until it closes on the real estate deals. He expects to apply for a state charter.

Recently, Arvest opened a loan production office at 2301 S. 56th St. and the Wal-Mart branch is expected to open in July. Womack expects to open another branch early next year in the Van Buren Supercenter.

Craig Rivaldo, also a Fort Smith native, has been named sales manager. He previously worked at another Arvest bank, McIlroy Bank & Trust in Fayetteville.

Womack most recently was president of Citizens Bank in Lawton, Okla., a bank that Arvest was apparently interested in purchasing but lost out in the bidding to Local Oklahoma Bank, a thrift that’s since been renamed Local Federal Bank.. That sale ultimately opened the door for Womack to join Arvest and return to his home town.

Arvest, of course, is the bank group owned by the Walton family. The Stephens family is a major stockholder of First United Bancshares, the El Dorado-based company that owns City National Bank in Fort Smith and Commercial Bank in Alma.