Fort Smith Businessmen Apply for Thrift Charter
by May 17, 1999 12:00 am 89 views
Seven Sebastian County businessmen have applied for a charter for a new community bank and holding company, and they anticipate receiving regulatory approval during the fourth quarter of the year.
Joe Edwards Jr., who will be the company’s president and CEO, says the organizers expect to raise $5 million from private investors for the initial capitalization. No public offering is planned.
The proposed name for the new bank is Benefit Bank. Its headquarters will be on the southeast corner of Phoenix Avenue and Massard Road in Fort Smith.
Edwards previously served as president of Superior Federal Bank, the state’s largest thrift with $1.4 billion in assets. NationsBank acquired Superior Federal when it purchased Boatmen’s, but last April, a group of investors paid NationsBank $162.5 million for Superior. In September, Edwards left Superior.
“It was time really to let the new management take [Superior] where it wanted to go,” says Edwards. “It was just time for them to do that.”
He had no thoughts of organizing a new bank at that time, Edwards says, and initially did some consulting work with other Arkansas thrifts. In early spring, friends began approaching him about the possibility of forming another bank.
“They thought many banking customers in this community would like to have another bank choice,” Edwards says. Ultimately, they convinced him not only that customers wanted another choice but that the group could provide that other choice. Unlike Northwest Arkansas where more than two dozen banks operate numerous branches, Fort Smith has just eight financial institutions, Edwards says.
Edwards says the group filed its application May 5 with the Office of Thrift Supervision. The group opted for a thrift charter for several reasons, Edwards says, including his own background in that industry. Also, a thrift charter provides good business options, including the possibility of branching across state lines. That could be of special importance to Benefit Bank because of Fort Smith’s proximity to Oklahoma.
Other organizers, in addition to Edwards, include Rod Coleman, owner and president of ERC Properties; John R. Taylor of John Taylor Financial Group Inc.; Keith Gibson, president of Lavaca Telephone Co.; Carl R. Friddle, a Fort Smith dentist; Rusty Jacobs, vice president of operations for USA Truck of Van Buren; and Leo A. Anhalt, president of construction company SSI Inc.