VOL. 128 | NO. 58 | Monday, March 25, 2013
Bank of Bartlett Continues Turnaround
By Andy Meek
The Federal Reserve Board has terminated a so-called “prompt corrective action” order for Bank of Bartlett that was released last year and which at the time asserted the bank was undercapitalized.
Bank of Bartlett president Harold Byrd said at the time the family-run bank was already on the mend and that the Fed’s order was based on outdated information. Without explanation, the Fed announced within the past week its order regarding Bank of Bartlett, dated Jan. 30 has been terminated.
That comes on the heels of a profitable 2012 for the bank, which Byrd said did get stung by the housing and economic crisis – as many businesses did.
“We’ve been in business for 33 years,” he said the same day the Fed released word of its order termination. “If you were a business or a bank that was invested in the community in 2006 and a few years after, you were going to be affected by that. And we certainly took our hits. But we’re firing on all cylinders now.”
Indeed, Bank of Bartlett reported a profit of $12.3 million for 2012 and a profit of $255,125 for the fourth quarter. The latter marked the sixth straight quarter Bank of Bartlett has been in the black.
Among other highlights for 2012, the bank saw a 17 percent decline in non-performing assets and a 36 percent increase in new mortgage loans – $70 million in 2012, up from $45 million in 2011.
The prompt corrective action notice was dated Jan. 30. The first sentence read, in part, that the Fed board of governors had determined Bank of Bartlett was undercapitalized as of Oct. 27, 2011.
The bank’s board met Jan. 19 and authorized a resolution consenting to compliance with each provision of the notice. That’s now been completed.
“We’re very pleased, and we expected this,” Byrd said of the Fed terminating its order. “They gave us a directive to become adequately capitalized, and now we’re well-capitalized, so we’re pleased with the progress we’ve made. The economy is doing well, and we’ve increased our loans and increased out mortgages. I attribute this to good leadership and to our great staff.”
The bank was founded in Bartlett in 1980, and has long kept its community bank feel.
Since opening, the bank also has financed the construction of more than 20,000 homes in Shelby County.
The bank has $370.4 million in total assets and operates eight bank branches in the county. It was ranked last summer as the 12th largest bank based in Memphis as listed by customer deposit share, according to the most recent data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And it’s continuing to grow and roll out new services.
Bank of Bartlett recently announced its mobile banking product is now available on all types of mobile devices, including iPhones, Android phones, Web-enabled smartphones and older cell phones through three different formats including a Bank of Bartlett mobile banking app.
That mobile service adds another dimension to the bank’s banking platform, which includes online banking and the bank’s no-fee network of 368 ATMs across Tennessee, including 60 Bank of Bartlett ATMs in Memphis-area Walgreens stores.