Three Arvest Execs Defect to Other Banks

Jaws dropped recently when three Arvest Bank-Rogers executives – Gary Kleck, Jerry Carmichael and Bruce Branch – resigned to go work for another financial institution. But no one knows which one and these three aren’t talking.

It’s speculated that their new digs will be a new-to-the-market institution, but rumors are always rampant about the already over-banked market drawing more players. Joe Mills, the former president of Simmons First Bank of Northwest Arkansas, also has backers and is supposedly forming a new bank, but it’s not a “Bank of Pinnacle Hills” project as has been bandied about.

Kleck said he was not at liberty to discuss details on his deal, but that an “information packet” is in the works and should be ready within a couple of weeks.