Shining Armor Bank Gets Beyond Tough ROE

Nathan Waldrip called Whispers last week with a fair request: that we remind readers that Armor Bank, fourth-from-the-bottom on the July 24 list of Arkansas banks ranked by 2016 return on equity, has new ownership since posting that -4.28 percent ROE.

Technically, Armor Bank is just a new name for the 98-year-old institution that was Forrest City Savings & Loan and then Forrest City Bank. But Waldrip and his father, Mark, formed a holding company to buy the bank and — in a nod to Armor Seeds, one of the family’s several agribusinesses — renamed it in January.

So that dismal ROE actually belongs to Forrest City Bank, Waldrip said, not Armor Bank. And 2017 will be better.

As Arkansas Business reported in May, Armor Bank’s first-quarter ROE was the best in the state — 21.44 percent. But the June 30 call report indicates a net loss for the quarter of $36,000, pulling year-to-date net income down to $232,000.

That’s still not bad for a bank with $50.9 million in assets as of June 30, one of the smallest in the state.

That also will change, said Nathan Waldrip, who is working in the bank under the tutelage of President Dwight Rutland. “We’re definitely going to try to grow it the best we can, hopefully here pretty soon,” he said, hinting at a possible acquisition.