Federal regulators shut down Rogers bank

By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Photo by Michael Woods

ANB Financial was shut down after business Friday by two federal banking regulators.

ADVERSTISMENT

Federal banking regulators closed ANB Financial of Rogers late Friday afternoon, and its nine offices will reopen Monday as branches of Pulaski Bank and Trust.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shut down the bank after the end of the business day. ANB is a $2 billion asset bank that lost $81 million last year.

It is the second Arkansas bank to fail in seven years. Sinclair National Bank of Gravette was shut down by regulators in September 2001.

Dan Dykema, chief executive officer of ANB, did not return a phone call Friday for comment.

The bank's downfall was its skyrocketing percentage of past-due loans.

More than half of ANB's loan portfolio was more than 30 days past due on March 31, including 36 percent that were already considered uncollectable. In December, ANB's percentage of loans more than 30 days past due was 25 percent, 10 times the average of banks nationally that are the size of ANB.

In June, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency filed a "written agreement" against ANB Financial, the second-largest locally owned bank in Northwest Arkansas behind Arvest Bank. The regulator said it had found "unsafe and unsound banking practices relating to the supervision" of ANB. A written agreement is the lesser of two sanctions by federal regulators. A cease-and-desist order is more serious.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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