Southwest Community Bank closed by regulators

Springfield-based Southwest Community Bank was closed Friday by the Missouri Division of Finance and reopened the next day as a branch of an Arkansas-based bank.

Southwest had assets of $96.6 million as of March 31 and deposits of $102.5 million, according to a news release from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC was named receiver of Southwest's assets, which were sold to Pine Bluff, Ark.-based Simmons First National Bank (Nasdaq: SFNC) at a discount of 9.5 percent of total assets and a deposit premium of 0.5 percent. The FDIC has also agreed to reimburse Simmons for 80 percent of any losses it incurs in handling Southwest's loans and foreclosed real estate.

Customers of Southwest Community Bank should continue to make loan payments and use Southwest's banking facilities as normal during the transition to Simmons' ownership, according to the FDIC release.  

Southwest was one of three Springfield-area banks with high troubled asset ratios, which compares a bank's capital and its loan-loss reserves, according to previous Springfield Business Journal coverage.

The acquisition of Southwest, which had one branch in Springfield at 3333 E. Battlefield Road, marks Simmons' first foray into Missouri, according to a separate news release from Simmons.

"This acquisition is the first of several that we anticipate making over the next two to three years, which is the reason we raised $70.5 million in additional capital in November 2009," Simmons Chairman and CEO J. Thomas May said in the company news release. "We believe the Missouri market, in general, and the Springfield market, in particular, present good opportunities for our franchise."

Simmons has eight community banks in Arkansas and had assets of $3.1 billion as of March 31. Shares of company stock closed Friday at $28.69, near their 52-week high of $30.84, and were trading up at $29.22 as of 9:45 a.m. Monday.[[In-content Ad]]