Arvest Nears Mega Money Milestone

Sometime during the week of Sept. 15, Arvest Bank Group Inc. expects to reach a milestone that’s believed to be a first for an Arkansas-based bank.

Probably by mid-week, the Fayetteville chain should hit $1 billion in residential mortgage loan originations for a single year. And that doesn’t include a nickel of business through $1.8 billion Superior Financial Corp., which $5.1 billion Arvest Holdings Inc. is in the process of acquiring for about $211 million.

As of the start of business on Sept. 10, Arvest had closed more than 8,500 residential mortage loans totaling $972 billion. That’s already a 3 percent increase over 2002’s year-long total of $940 billion.

Enough additional business was in the bank’s “pipeline” to convince executives it would close on enough loans to reach the mid-week milestone. An internal celebration is being organized at Arvest, but it’s expected to be low key.

There’s no formal record kept for such a feat, we’re told. But Arvest executives said they are extremely confident the financial mark is an Arkansas first.

Just the sheer volume necessary to make such a number could only be prompted by incredibly favorable rates like those that began in 2000, when 30-year, fixed-rates were as high as 9 percent. By this summer, rates had falled to 5.25 percent and lower before spiking back upward.

Bill Roehrenbeck, president of Arvest Mortgage Co., and Todd White, that division’s production manager, are being heralded for the accomplishment. Their division services about $5 billion worth of mortgage loans.