Testing the Theory of Efficiency (EDITORS NOTE)
by March 14, 2016 12:00 am 99 views
Clustered near the busy intersection of Mission and Crossover in east Fayetteville, there are seven banks that hold deposits.
It’s not that they all enjoy doing business in close proximity to each other, it’s just a highly visible, heavily trafficked area. Then again, that describes the majority of intersections in our region.
But within the next several weeks, the number of lenders cashing in on that particular corner will shrink by two.
As previously reported by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, IberiaBank, a subsidiary of publicly traded IberiaBank Corp., a financial holding company headquartered in Lafayette, Louisiana, is closing its office at 2710 E. Mission Blvd. on March 21.
It’s also closing a branch in Springdale.
The closures are an effort to streamline the bank’s Northwest Arkansas branch network, and will leave the company with two offices in Rogers, and one each in Springdale, Fayetteville and Bentonville.
Another closure I have heard about will take place next month, when Little Rock-based Bear State Bank N.A. closes its branch at 2025 N. Crossover Road. That office has been open since April 1997, and only Arvest Bank (June 1996) has been operating longer at Mission and Crossover.
Bear State executives weren’t ready to give me an official comment, but I suspect their reasons for closing in east Fayetteville are similar to IberiaBank’s — a way to make the company’s branch network more efficient. Bear State, after April 30, will still have one branch in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Rogers.
Bear State’s other Fayetteville branch is at 3460 N. College Ave., at the intersection of Millsap Road and across the street from a new shopping center anchored by the Whole Foods Market. That development has made an already clogged intersection even more of a challenge.
Bear State will still have a very visible Fayetteville branch, but that location may test its theory of efficiency.
At the least, the traffic glut may test the patience of its customers.