Heritage Gushes for Oil Town Bank

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — What are the odds that 101-year-old Arvest WestStar Bank here would be started by Phillips Petroleum founder Frank Phillips and later owned by the Walton family of Wal-Mart fame? Pretty good, actually, given Arvest’s pursuit of profitable banks in Oklahoma.

WestStar, originally First National Bank of Bartlesville, boasts 45 to 50 percent of all of Arvest’s trust services with $380 million in trust assets. An old, established commercial bank in what was once known as the oil capital of America, it’s routinely among Arvest’s best performers for return on equity. Last year that number was 22.9 percent. Through July, it’s 21.9.

“There is no one in our trust services department with less than 15 years of experience,” said Donny Story, WestStar’s president and CEO and a former manager at McIlroy Bank in Fayetteville.

The bank changed to WestStar during a 1988 buying mode and added the Arvest moniker after the company’s 1994 merger.

About $200 million of WestStar’s $280 million loan portfolio is commercial, and it has 22,000 customers, about 50 percent of the market with seven offices in Bartlesville, Nowata and Dewey. In three years, its Nowata bank has grown from $22 million in deposits to $50 million by taking business away from its competitor, First National Bank of Nowata.

There probably aren’t many banks in towns of 35,000 or fewer people with $460 million in assets. Story said WestStar — a mirror opposite of cousin Arvest State Bank 50 miles to the south in Tulsa — has made a living on commercial business. But it’s still a “people” bank.

“People just want a face and a relationship,” Story said. “They know I’m the same guy who’s flipping burgers for the [Bartlesville] Bruins football tailgate party on Friday night.”