White River Bancshares Reports Rising Q1 Income

Gary Head, CEO of Signature Bank of Arkansas (Beth Hall)

White River Bancshares Co. (OTCQX: WRIV) of Fayetteville reported rising income, deposits and loans in the first quarter as it prepares to open the second branch of its bilingual bank brand, Banco Sí, in northwest Arkansas.

The holding company for Signature Bank of Arkansas said net income was $509,000, up 49.7% from $340,000 in the same quarter a year ago. Per share, earnings came to 51 cents.

Loans totaled $969.7 million, up 15.6% from $838.9 million a year ago. Nonperforming loans increased during the quarter to $1.72 million, or 0.18% of total loans,  primarily due to the deterioration of a $1 million owner-occupied residential property loan. The bank said the loan is well secured and it doesn’t expect to take a loss on the loan.

Deposits increased 13.4% to $1.01 billion, compared to $890.8 million in the first quarter of 2023.  “While rising rates changed the deposit mix as customers pursued higher yielding accounts, demand and non-interest bearing accounts remained strong,” Scott Sandlin, the company’s chief strategy officer, said in a statement.

The bank’s net interest margin was 2.97% compared to 2.9% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 3.16% a year ago. Higher asset yields in the quarter nearly offset an increase in funding costs.

“While the first two months of 2024 showed NIM stabilization, we experienced meaningful NIM expansion during the month of March, and we anticipate our NIM will continue to expand for the remainder of 2024 if interest rates remain steady or start to decline,” said Brant Ward, president of White River Bancshares.

The company’s second Banco Sí location is scheduled to open in downtown Springdale in the second quarter. The first opened in 2022 in downtown Rogers as part of a broader expansion that also brought Signature Bank locations to Harrison and Jonesboro.

“Our expansions to Harrison, Jonesboro, and the addition of Banco Sí, our bilingual banking brand, have been strategic moves to diversify our deposit and loan portfolios and provide our style of community banking to communities who need us,” CEO Gary Head said. “These new markets have responded favorably, strengthening our entire bank family in this first quarter.”

White River Bancshares currently operates nine banks in the state. It finished the first quarter with $1.18 billion in total assets, up 9% from $1.08 billion a year ago.