Arvest Banks Market Share Swells in NWA

Walton family-owned Arvest Bank continues to lead the way as the No. 1 bank in Northwest Arkansas.

As of the 12-month period that ended June 30, the Fayetteville-chartered bank held $4.6 billion in local deposits at its 66 retail branches, representing 38.2 percent of the total deposit market share in the six-county region of Benton, Washington, Madison, Carroll, Sebastian and Crawford counties.

That’s up slightly from last year, when Arvest held roughly $4.5 billion in insured bank deposits, for a total market share of 37.9 percent.

The data is from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s annual Summary of Deposits (SOD) report, released Sept. 29. It includes market share data for lending institutions in all 75 counties of Arkansas.

To see the six-county market share breakdown, click here.

The SOD is the annual survey of branch office deposits for all FDIC-insured institutions, including insured U.S. branches of foreign banks, from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2014. All institutions with branch offices are required to submit the survey.

The data is helpful in showing general trends, but should not be taken as a report on a bank’s overall health.

In total, 41 banks operating 297 branches in the six-county area of Northwest Arkansas held $12.1 billion in deposits as of June 30, an increase of 2.8 percent ($337 million) from last year, according to the FDIC data (see list on Page 12).

With 66 local branches, Arvest easily has the largest presence among local lenders. Searcy-chartered First Security Bank and Little Rock-based Bank of the Ozarks each have 17, followed by the First National Bank of Fort Smith with 16 and Centennial Bank of Conway with 12.

First National Bank of Fort Smith has a comfortable lead for the No. 2 position in local deposits with $895.4 million, representing 7.4 percent of the local market share.

First Security Bank is in the third spot with $645.4 million in Northwest Arkansas deposits. BancorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Mississippi, and Simmons First National Bank of Pine Bluff round out the top five, with $472.3 million and 347.3 million, respectively.

The next five are: Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama ($331.9), Bank of America of Charlotte, North Carolina ($321.5), Citizens’ Bank & Trust Co. of Van Buren ($317.3), Fayetteville-chartered Signature Bank of Arkansas ($297.4) and the Bank of Oklahoma, doing business here as Bank of Arkansas, with $291.7.

For a national perspective, even as banking companies closed hundreds of branches, growth was still evident.

The SOD report showed 94,715 U.S. branches as of June 30, down from 96,329 a year earlier. But during the same 12-month period, deposits grew from about $9.4 trillion to more than $10 trillion.

Closer to home, Arkansas banks had a combined $53.8 billion in total bank deposits, up from $53.1 billion a year ago.

Big Movers

In Benton County, which holds the largest amount of deposits at just over $4 billion, Arvest is, of course, king, with a market share of more than 60 percent.

But Decatur State Bank was one of the biggest movers there. The bank — made up of Decatur State Bank in Decatur, Bank of Siloam Springs and Gentry Bank — added a combined $25.9 million in deposits at those three locations, to bring its total to $127.7 million, an increase of 25.5 percent to jump from No. 8 to No. 2 in total deposits in Benton County.

In Washington County, Arvest is right at 37 percent market share with $1.5 billion in deposits in its 23 branches there.

Louisiana-based IberiaBank, a subsidiary of IberiaBank Corp., a multi-bank financial holding company, was a big mover for a second consecutive year.

The bank’s deposits at its four Washington County locations have grown 102 percent in the last two years, from $40.6 million in 2012 to $82.2 million this year.

The Bank of Arkansas showed an unusual increase of 343.5 percent to $276.9 million in deposits at its lone Washington County branch in Fayetteville.

The drastic change can be attributed to cost center classification, according to Jett Cato, the bank’s president and CEO. The explanation is the same for a sharp decline at the bank’s other local office in Bentonville.

For reporting purposes, the bank grew its deposits year-over-year by a combined $34.7 million to $291.6 million, an increase of just over 13 percent. 

Richest Bank Branches

The FDIC data can be studied in a number of ways, including which branch locations of a given bank have the most deposits.

In the six-county area of Northwest Arkansas, the top 20 branches ranked by total deposits as of the June 30 snapshot had $4.5 billion in total deposits.

Far and away, the branch with the most deposits is the Arvest Bank location at 201 N.E. A St. in downtown Bentonville, with $835 million in deposits.

Statewide, Arvest has 119 branch locations. The second-richest Arvest office is in Springdale at 415 W. Emma Ave., with $254.4 million in deposits.

Overall, there are eight bank locations in the six-county area with at least $200 million in insured deposits — three in Fayetteville, two in Bentonville and one each in Fort Smith, Springdale and Rogers.