NEWS IN BRIEF

— Metropolitan Bank cuts losses by 60%

Metropolitan National Bank earned $761,000 for the fourth quarter last year, the Little Rock-based bank said Friday.

That was up from $538,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011, Metropolitan said.

For the year, Metropolitan lost $1.9 million, compared with a loss of $4.8 million in 2011.

2012 was a positive year for Metropolitan because it was able to reduce its losses by more than 60 percent, Lunsford Bridges, chief executive officer of the bank, said in a prepared statement.

Its nonperforming loans - those more than 90 days past due - dropped by $81 million last year, a 44 percent decline, Bridges said.

“Our year-to-date loss is consistent with our strategy to reduce nonperforming assets without reducing capital levels,” Bridges said in the statement.

The bank was sanctioned by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2008.

Metropolitan lost $12 million in 2010 and more than $80 million in 2009.

Metropolitan, founded in 1970, has assets of about $1 billion.

  • David Smith

Ex-Decatur banker will exit profession

Aaron Holcombe, a former employee with Decatur State Bank, has agreed to an order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to stop participating in banking activities.

The order was issued Dec. 21 but not released until Friday.

Holcombe was fined $7,500 by the government agency.

The FDIC said it had reason to believe that Holcombe engaged in unsafe or unsound banking practices at the bank, causing Decatur to suffer losses.

In the agreement, Holcombe did not admit or deny involvement in any unsafe or unsound banking practices.

Decatur State Bank, which has lost more than $21 million in the past three years, was sanctioned by the FDIC in November 2011. The holding company for the bank was sold last year.

  • David Smith

9 Arkansas Index stocks climb, 6 fall

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, gained 0.39 to 260.65 Friday.

Nine stocks advanced, six declined and one was unchanged.

USA Truck climbed 2.7 percent on three times its normal volume.

Wal-Mart Stores fell 1.1 percent on less-than-average trading.

For the week, 11 stocks rose, four fell and one was unchanged.

J.B. Hunt Transport was up 7.6 percent for the week.

Simmons First National lost 1.4 percent for the week.

Volume was 24.5 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 22.9 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 31 on 01/26/2013

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