Q3 PPP Tops $4.4 Billion at Biggest 20 Banks

The tally of Paycheck Protection Program funds that flowed through the 20 largest banks in Arkansas topped $4.4 billion and encompassed more than 50,149 loans. However, that Sept. 30 snapshot only reflects PPP loans the banks still carried on their books.

That footnote is underscored by the low count at Danville’s Chambers Bank: 27 loans totaling more than $1.9 million at the end of the third quarter.

At one time, the $1 billion-asset lender carried 310 PPP loans totaling more than $18 million in a 90-10 participation agreement with Little Rock’s Arkansas Capital Corp.

“We partnered with ACC because they were set up to originate PPP loans before we were,” said Matt Hicks, chief credit officer with Chambers Bank.

The bank sold its stake in most of its PPP loans to ACC during the second quarter.

“It allowed them to clear up that capital and be ready for whatever comes next,” said Sam Walls III, ACC president and chief operating officer. “We partnered with them and their borrowers.”

It was an arrangement ACC had with a half dozen other Arkansas banks. In all, ACC participated in about $55 million worth of PPP loans.

The state’s largest bank, Arvest Bank of Fayetteville, carried the biggest portfolio of PPP loans as of Sept. 30: 15,308 with a loan balance of more than $1.1 billion.

Paycheck Protection Program Among 20 Largest Arkansas Banks in Arkansas
(as of Sept. 30)