Arvest Equipment Finance grows loans, leases more than 25% in 2016

Arvest Equipment Finance (AEF), a division of Arvest Bank, tallied $234.7 million in loans and leases during 2016, up 25.1% from the prior year. The equipment finance division, according to a news release, has grown its loans and leases at least 25 percent for two consecutive years. Additionally, AEF increased its number of contracts from 1,046 in 2015 to 1,816 in 2016.

“Our growth was a combination of increased volume from the commercial lenders and from our vendor production, which is an area we are focusing on for future growth,” AEF President Eric Bunnell said in the release. “Our experienced operations team did a fantastic job of meeting the demands for the increased volume, while the sales team was able to increase their joint calls with lenders and vendors, which led to new opportunities.”

AEF also announced a round of new hires and a promotion. John Bradford has been promoted to sales manager, while Omar Portillo was hired as manager of credit administration and Rick Dierks as equipment finance specialist for Missouri and Kansas.

AEF is headquartered in Fort Smith with locations in Little Rock, Kansas City and Tulsa, and does business throughout Arvest’s four-state footprint.

AEF also announced that Matt Crawley and John Raymond Pitre have earned the Certified Lease & Finance Professional (CLFP) designation. The CLFP designation identifies an individual as a knowledgeable professional to employers, clients, customers and peers in the equipment finance industry.

Arvest employs nine of the more than 400 CLFPs in the United States and Canada. That total ties Arvest for the sixth-highest number of CLFPs among all companies, according to the release.