Bank Midwest sells Missouri, Kansas assets

The five Bank Midwest locations in Springfield are not included in a pending sale of Kansas City-based Bank Midwest’s 38 stand-alone branches and their assets in Kansas and Missouri to Boston-based NBH Holdings Corp.

But the deal will result in the closing of the bank’s 600 W. Republic Road location in Springfield and a name change for its branches inside six area Walmart stores. Bank Midwest is a subsidiary of Kansas City-based Dickinson Financial Corp.

Cindy Crews, Republic Road branch manager, couldn’t give details of the Springfield branch closing but said seven workers would be displaced July 20. Crews added they have known their fate for 90 days.

“It was determined that the bank’s four in-store branches in Springfield could adequately serve the Republic Road branch customers,” Dickinson Financial Corp. CEO Paul Holewinski said via e-mail.

Dickinson Financial reached the sale agreement July 6 and will retain control of about 35 Bank Midwest branches elsewhere throughout the country, including those in southwest Missouri. The transaction is pending regulatory approval.

The area locations of Bank Midwest are on Republic Road and inside six Walmart stores: 1923 E. Kearney St.; 2021 E. Independence St.; 3520 W. Sunshine St.; 3315 S. Campbell Ave.; 2004 W. Marler St. in Ozark; and 1101 Branson Hills Parkway in Branson.

Laurie Ellison, bank spokeswoman in Kansas City, confirmed the Republic Road branch closing and said customers’ accounts would move to Bank Midwest’s Walmart locations.

“In-store banking is core to the organization’s strategy going forward, and the Springfield branches are an important component of that strategy,” Holewinski added. “The in-stores will be rebranded prior to the closing of the transaction. Other than a name change, it will be business as usual for these branches and the customers we serve.”

Officials have not decided on the new name, which they’ll choose from Dickinson Financial’s family of banks: SunBank, Southern Commerce Bank, and a group of military banks, Armed Forces Bank, Armed Forces Bank of California and Academy Bank.

Local bank branch managers would not comment on the rebranding or on any changes following the Republic Road branch closing.

Bank Midwest is the third-largest bank based in the Kansas City metropolitan area but has struggled with underperforming loans, according to Kansas City Business Journal coverage. In May, regulators gave the bank until August to submit a plan to improve its performance.

The bank had a 23 percent problem loan ratio in the first quarter with $489.5 million in loans more than 90 days past due and not producing the stated interest, Kansas City Business Journal reported.

Springfield Business Journal research discovered Bank Midwest’s troubled asset ratio for March was 176.1 percent compared to the national median of 15 percent. Just a year earlier, the bank’s troubled asset ratio was 55.4 percent, compared to a national median of 11.7 percent in March 2009, according to Banktracker.com.

Holewinski said those factors have little effect on the bank’s Springfield branches.
“The Springfield in-stores are some of the highest performing in-store branches we have in our organization,” he said.

Ellison said the Springfield in-store banks are outpacing others in new-account growth, although she would not disclose numbers by branch.[[In-content Ad]]