Relyance Lures Straessle Away from First Security

David Straessle

David Straessle, who had been president of the Little Rock market for First Security Bank of Searcy since 2011, was hired last Thursday to do the same job for Relyance Bank of Pine Bluff.

And just as he did when he left Centennial Bank to join First Security, Straessle brought Chris Johnson and Russ Martin with him.

“I hate to call it a raid,” Chuck Morgan, CEO of Relyance Bank, told Whispers.

But, Morgan said, he needed to put a good team in place because the bank formerly known as Pine Bluff National is about to open its first Little Rock branch.

That would be in the former Simmons First National Bank branch at 11000 Financial Centre Parkway that Relyance’s parent company, Jefferson Bancshares Inc., purchased earlier this summer.

But to be a market president, Straessle is going to need more than one branch to oversee, right?

Right, Morgan said.

Relyance was close to finalizing the lease of another branch in the Heights, he said, but he wasn’t ready to disclose the exact location. It should be opening in mid-February.