Arvest bilingual tool
aids financial health
Arvest Bank announced Monday it will offer a new bilingual mobile-first financial education resource to help consumers build financial health and confidence. The EmpowerED initiative will be free for customers and offer services in English and Spanish.
The service will highlight personal financial education topics such as budgeting, investing, home ownership and retirement planning. The interactive platform will provide consumers with the tools and personalized knowledge necessary to make better financial decisions.
The program is part of the Arvest Opportunity Fund, a wholly owned non-bank subsidiary of Arvest that promotes finance and education for customers who have difficulty securing loans under traditional lending standards.
"Arvest views this investment in financial education as needed support for our customers and communities," said Hillis Schild, executive director of the opportunity fund. "Providing financial education -- whether it be via our new online platform or in-person workshops -- can have real impact on people's financial situations and their lives."
-- Andrew Moreau
Tourism efforts net
awards for LR, NLR
The Little Rock and North Little Rock tourism organizations both won awards at last week's Arkansas Governor's Conference on Tourism Henry Awards in Jonesboro, where the Ozark Gateway Tourist Council won tourism region of the year and author John Gill was named person of the year.
The region of the year award goes to one of Arkansas' 12 regional tourism associations; the Ozark Gateway organization covers an area of north Arkansas west of U.S. 67, east of Mountain Home and north of Batesville.
Gill, an attorney at Gill Ragon Owen in Little Rock and Methodist Family Health benefactor, has written books about the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, New Deal-era art in the state's post offices, and county seats' courthouse squares.
The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau won the awards for tourism development and organization of the year, for its campaigns on the capital city's Black history; January 2023-adopted 10-year plan, which includes renovation of the Statehouse Convention Center; and excellence in customer service.
Heather Kouns, director of tourism development at North Little Rock Tourism, won the Rising Star Award for improvements made to existing programs such as Restaurant Week that resulted in greater participation.
-- Aaron Gettinger
Arkansas Index down
2.06 points at close
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Monday at 910.56, down 2.06 points.
"The stock market finished Monday's session mixed as investors try to grab onto anything that will help keep this stock market moving higher," said Chris Harkins, managing director at Raymond James & Associates.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.