"Since the subprime mortgage business went to hell, there just hasn't been any wholesale [mortgage business]," Dykema said.
ANB purchased the mortgage business from United Holding Co. of Springdale in June 2006 for an undisclosed amount. UHC is the parent company for United Bank.
Dykema said the closing was independent of its agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The agreement, issued Jan. 29, requires ANB to submit a detailed written capital plan and a cash flow plan due to the bank's 2007 losses and high volume of delinquent loans.
"We would've done it regardless," he said. "We didn't sell it; we didn't realize any cash or anything, so it didn't help us out in that way. I wish it would've worked out," he said.
The Little Rock office employed about 12 people. Dykema said the bank will keep a retail loan production office in Conway open.
The bank also has loan production offices in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah and employs 198, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
ANB closed the year with more than $2 billion in assets and $1.85 billion in deposits. About 85 percent of its deposits, or $1.59 billion, were brokered or purchased from out-of-market banks to fund loan growth.
For calendar 2007, the bank lost $58.9 million and had nonperforming loans valued at $388.1 million.
