Money Talk: Simmons First adds two outside directors to company board

Editor’s note: Each Monday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Money Talk,” a wrap-up of banking and financial news. 

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SIMMONS FIRST ADDS TWO OUTSIDE DIRECTORS TO COMPANY BOARD
St. Louis native Jerry Hunter and Mindy West of El Dorado were named to the Simmons First National Corp. board of directors, which now has been expanded to 13 members, the company announced on Friday (Jan. 13). Hunter is a partner in the St. Louis office of Bryan Cave LLP, a global law firm with 27 offices across North America, Europe and Asia. He served as the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board from 1989-93. West serves as executive vice president, CFO and treasurer for Murphy USA Inc., the publicly traded convenience store operator that has more than 1,400 stores around the U.S.

Hunter received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and his law degree from Washington University at St. Louis. He was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1977 and the Missouri bar in 1978.

West, a certified public accountant and certified treasury professional, earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. She worked 17 years for Murphy Oil and held positions in accounting, employee benefits, planning and investor relations.

FDIC ANNOUNCES FIRST FAILED BANK OF 2017
Harvest Community Bank in Pennsville, N.J., became the first bank in 2017 to land on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) “failed bank” list. The East Coast bank was closed on Friday (Jan. 13) by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, which appointed the FDIC as receiver.

To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Raleigh, North Carolina, to assume all of the deposits of Harvest Community Bank. As of September 30, 2016, Harvest Community Bank had approximately $126.4 million in total assets and $123.8 million in total deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

In 2016, there were only five FDIC bank failures in U.S., the lowest number after the Great Recession. Mulberry-based Allied Bank was the last FDIC bank failure in the U.S. in 2016. Allied entered into an agreement with Today’s Bank of Huntsville on Sept. 13 to acquire all the failing bank’s deposits.

FEDERAL BANKING AGENCIES EXTEND COMMENT PERIOD FOR RULES ON ENHANCED CYBER RISK MANAGEMENT
The Federal Reserve Board, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC on Friday extended until February 17, 2017, the comment period for the advance notice of proposed rulemaking on enhanced cyber risk management standards for large and interconnected financial institutions under their supervision.

The agencies are considering five categories of cyber standards: cyber risk governance; cyber risk management; internal dependency management; external dependency management; and incident response, cyber resilience, and situational awareness. Originally, comments were due by January 17, 2017. The agencies extended the comment period to allow interested persons more time to analyze the issues and prepare their comments.