Bank Commissioner Speaks to Rotary

A group of Rogers Rotarians sang “Happy Birthday” to their guest speaker, State Bank Commissioner Robert “Bunny” Adcock, before he took the podium on July 19. They presented him with a birthday brownie complete with a single flaming candle, which he promptly blew out.

Adcock addressed some of his most frequently asked questions about banking in the state and the health of the booming banking market in Northwest Arkansas.

According to his presentation materials, overall, the number of commercial banks in the state has dropped from 259 in June 1985 to 170 in March 2005, a 34 percent decrease. However, the number of bank offices has grown from 701 in June 1985 to 1,292 as of June 2004, an 84 percent increase.

Deposits in Benton County alone have grown 103 percent from $1.29 billion as of June 1994 to $2.63 billion as of June 2004. In-state banks held the vast majority of those deposits, with out-of-state banks holding only $175 million, or 6.65 percent of the June 2004 figure.

Deposits in “recently chartered or relocated banks” in the state grew from $1.42 billion as of December 1998 to $5.07 billion as of March 2005, a 257 percent increase.

Adcock said he was disappointed to note that Arkansas was third highest in the country for bankruptcy filings, behind Tennessee and Alabama. There were 24,539 total bankruptcy filings as of March 31, up from 16,329 for the same time in 2000. Most of those were personal filings, but business declarations almost doubled from 200 filings in 2000 to 393 as of March 31, 2005.

Adcock encouraged bankers in Northwest Arkansas to continue to perform thorough credit checks on their customers and know who their business partners are.