First Security Bank Names New NWA Market President

Searcy-based First Security Bank has named a new market president and CEO for its operations in Northwest Arkansas.

Adam Rutledge has replaced Jim Taylor, who has taken a job as senior vice president of the bank’s holding company, First Security Bancorp, in Little Rock. Taylor had been splitting time between Little Rock and Northwest Arkansas since April 2012.

Both men are past honorees of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 — Taylor in 1999 and Rutledge in 2010.

Rutledge has previously served the Northwest Arkansas market as senior vice president and commercial lender.

A 2004 University of Arkansas graduate, Rutledge started with the bank as a frontline teller, working his way through management training in various roles at the bank. 

He is the son of Reynie Rutledge, chairman and CEO of First Security Bancorp. The holding company has more than $4.3 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, and approximately 1,000 employees in 72 locations across the state.

In Northwest Arkansas, Taylor led First Security’s entry into the market in 1998. In June 1999, the bank opened a gleaming new location on Joyce Boulevard in Fayetteville.

Today, First Security boasts 16 locations in Benton and Washington counties, and ranks second behind only Arvest Bank with $671.3 million in deposits in the two-county area, according to the latest deposit market share data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.