Citizens Bank & Trust Co. of Van Buren is working to entrench itself deeper in the Crawford County market.
The $375 million-asset lender intends to open a branch in Cedarville. Has a full-service banking office ever operated in the community of 1,300 residents?
“To our knowledge, no,” said Keith Hefner, CEO and president of Citizens.
Plans call for a new branch to be built at 8828 Hwy. 59N, former home of ImaJerk BBQ, to serve northwest Crawford County.
“People in that part of the county have to drive a long distance to reach a brick-and-mortar location,” Hefner said.
The Cedarville office represents the seventh full-service branch for Citizens, which operates four locations in Van Buren and one each in Alma and Mountainburg. Among eight banks in the market, Citizens holds a 47.3 percent share of the county’s $689 million deposits.
The bank, founded on a charter dating back to May 1886, is owned by First Bank Corp. of Fort Smith. That mostly stock swap transaction in 1994 was valued at $17.4 million.