Arkansas? ROE Sixth in District

In the fourth quarter of 2007, Arkansas banks collectively had a return on their average equity of 8.95 percent, ranking No. 6 of the seven states in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank’s Eighth District. The district includes all of Arkansas and parts of six other states.

Arkansas’ ROE was down 3.95 percent from the comparable quarter a year earlier. The entire Eighth District reported lower ROE than the previous year.

Many banks measure success and performance by their annual ROE percentage.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. defines ROE as “Annualized net income as a percent of average equity on a consolidated basis.”

For the same quarter, Fayetteville-chartered Arvest Bank had an ROE of 11.99 percent; Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock a 9.28 percent ROE; Bank of the Ozarks had a 16.72 percent ROE; and Searcy-based First Security Bank had a 12.91 percent ROE.

The collective return on average assets for the district was 7.87 percent, and the U.S. average was 9.52 percent.