Small says Town & Country Bank is poised for growth

There’s no denying that there are fewer community banks in Southern Nevada today than before the recession. Several of the survivors still operate under the watchful eye of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and have changed their executive teams.

Town &Country Bank is one of those monitored survivors. The bank has been operating under a consent order since 2010. The four-branch bank has $117 million in assets and recently chose a new chief executive.

Darrel Small, 57, replaced Phil Burns in February, who was named interim CEO in September after James Brewer departed. Small said with a strong commitment from the bank’s ownership group, taking over as president and CEO was a good opportunity.

“They have been very supportive,” Small said.

Town &Country is owned by West Point Bancorp Inc., a West Point, Neb.-based bank holding company. Point Bancorp, which has $400 million in assets, also owns F&M Bank.

Small said he was confident the bank would emerge from its consent order soon. Town &County Bank, which lost $4.6 million last year, is profitable, posting net income of $2.9 million through the third quarter.

“We are changing our core earnings and are recovering on nonperforming assets, which were mostly real estate,” Small said. “This bank wrote off some of it. It has come back a little bit. That’s the reason for the gain from sales.”

Small said he expected Las Vegas to continue its “slow” recovery. That recovery has resulted in modest growth in commercial lending, especially of owner-occupied real estate, tenant improvements and convenience store financing.

Small said Town &Country has even done some multifamily financing.

“We don’t want a faster recovery where there is risk in that growth,” he said. “We want slow and steady growth. We are pleased to see the improvement in the economy locally.”

Small said 98 percent of the bank’s issues have been addressed. Going forward, he said, the bank will continue to improve asset quality and start to grow.

Town &Country Bank is happy with its branch footprint, but recently launched mobile banking.

“It’s the way the industry is going,” Small said.

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @sierotyfeatures on Twitter.