ANB Financial to Open Loan Office in Jackson, Wyo.

Bentonville-chartered ANB Financial N.A. opened a loan production office in St. George, Utah, back in January and is looking to outfit a yet another loan production satellite in trendy and highly affluent Jackson, Wyo.

Jackson Hole, the geographic area where the town of Jackson is located, is known as a vacation playground for stars and home to the likes of Harrison Ford and the late John Walton, son of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton. The region is at the foot of Grand Teton National Park and within a day’s drive of Yellowstone National Park.

Dan Dykema, chairman and CEO of ANB, said the bank’s strategy has always been to grow through de novo — or brand new — branching and that the areas out West are hot markets. He claims the St. George area is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, much like Northwest Arkansas. He said loan production in St. George was “going well.”

Dykema said the only thing holding up the Jackson locale was hiring the right team to run the office. A friend of the Business Journal who vacationed there recently confirmed ads for potential ANB employees are running in the Jackson paper.

The bank is not looking to turn those offices into full-fledge banks in the near future, Dykema said. However, he’s looking at advanced function ATMs that may provide banking in the West with little or no teller lines.

As of March 31, ANB had $694 million in assets, up 33.7 percent from $519 a year before.