2020 Rocks Home Loans Amid COVID-19 
by George Waldon – 7 days ago
The surprise tandem that made home sales especially memorable for residential realty companies last year made 2020 equally unforgettable for mortgage lenders.
The surprise tandem that made home sales especially memorable for residential realty companies last year made 2020 equally unforgettable for mortgage lenders.
Douglas Cos., a wholesale distributor to convenience stores headquartered in Conway, has hired Mitzi Warren as its director of food service, following a national search to fill the position.
Insurance agency The River Co. has acquired personal and commercial insurance company Roy N. Borden Agency Inc.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been extended and expanded to provide more funding for first-time borrowers and to allow some existing borrowers the opportunity to receive additional help. read more >
Arkansas Business' Lance Turner talks to Stuart Jackson, a partner on the Labor & Employment Team at the Wright Lindsey Jennings law firm in Little Rock, about whether employers can require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine read more >
Chris Pledger has been named CFO of Westrock Coffee Co. LLC of Little Rock, effective immediately. read more >
Shine Solar of Rogers is flexing its expansion muscles, announcing the hiring of former Overstock.com CFO David Chidester as its first CFO adviser. read more >
Simmons Bank of Pine Bluff has accused former employees of taking customer and proprietary bank information when they left to work for Encore Bank of Little Rock. read more >
While the deadly viral pandemic is far more serious than a cartoon, the social and economic impact of COVID-19 has indeed reduced many norms to mere fragments: smithereens! read more >
The Deloitte Center for Financial Services is forecasting that the average return on equity in the U.S. banking industry could drop to 5.6% in 2020 but then recover to 11.7% in 2022. read more >
Scott Todd has joined First Community Bank in Batesville as vice president of secondary mortgage production and sales manager. read more >
Grant Downer has been hired to work in the business development/custom software solutions area of Mainstream Technologies in Little Rock. read more >
Rod Beckham, the mortgage division president of First Financial Bank of El Dorado, says the residential real estate market is hot. read more >
The second $284 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which will offer more forgivable loans designed to soften job losses from the pandemic, began accepting applications from businesses today. read more >
A Federal Reserve survey of U.S. business conditions has found modest economic gains at the start of the year, although some parts of the country saw slowdowns stemming from a renewed surge of COVID-19 cases. read more >
Staley Technologies of Little Rock announces its merger with POSitive Solutions Group of Williamston, Michigan. read more >
Brent A. Seay has opened a new accounting firm, The Seay Firm CPAs PLLC, in northwest Arkansas. read more >
The Small Business Administration and the Treasury Department are preparing to revive the Paycheck Protection Program five months after its first two rounds of funding ended. read more >
With the fast-approaching inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, what can Arkansas businesses expect to see over the next four years from an employment perspective? read more >
Greg McKinney, CFO of Bank OZK of Little Rock, and Richard Bell, president and CEO of Bell & Co. of North Little Rock, receive lifetime achievement awards during a live webcast on Dec. 15 from Little Rock. read more >
With COVID-19 vaccinations on the horizon, employers have the opportunity to think through whether vaccines should be mandatory or at the discretion of the employees. There are also legal implications to wiegh. read more >
Legacy Capital Wealth Partners and Trent Capital Management say their merger makes them one of the largest independent registered investment advisory firms in the state. read more >
Five Arkansas certified public accounting firms say they merged their companies on Jan. 1 to form Garland & Greenwood CPAs and Advisors PLLC. read more >
In the COVID-19 era, there are considerations employers should keep in mind about employee business and personal travel, including employee safety and claim avoidance. read more >
The Associated Press takes a look at businesses that benefitted from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and those that faltered. read more >
Like so many things pandemic-related, remote work presents a host of legal challenges for employers to consider. Here's a few. read more >
Week after week, we approach executives from businesses large and small, nonprofits and even government agencies, and we ask them to answer questions about their organizations, their industries and themselves. read more >
The rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccines poses some thorny questions for U.S. employers: Can they or should they require employees to get the shots? read more >
Former presidential candidate and Forbes Media Chairman Steve Forbes will kick off a new webcast series presented by Arkansas Business next month featuring authors, entrepreneurs and key leaders in business and sports. read more >
Arkansas Business asked industry leaders to share their expectations for 2021, both before and after the coronavirus vaccine is widely available. Here's what they said. read more >
High times and low moments noted from Arkansas Business subjects in 2020. read more >
They said it, we only quoted them. Here are some of the best things said in 2020. read more >
Legends in Arkansas died this year, ranging from the state's best-known writer to the father of the modern bass boat to the founder of what became the state's largest real estate company to a “titan of the steel industry.” read more >
