Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
New Mexico Bank & Trust won’t back off from its plan to close its branch in Logan, but its CEO signaled he was open to delay it from its scheduled shuttering in June.
That was the impressions conveyed by two of three people — including a state legislator — who attended a meeting Thursday in Albuquerque with New Mexico Bank & Trust CEO and president Greg Leyendecker.
New Mexico Bank & Trust announced earlier this month it would close its Logan branch on June 9, less than 18 months after the entity acquired it and several other banks in the region from FNB-New Mexico.
If the branch closes, it would be the first time Logan has been without a bank in more than a century.
Quay County Commission Chairman Franklin McCasland, state Rep. Jack Chatfield (R-Mosquero) and county attorney Warren Frost of Logan met with Leyendecker at his company’s Albuquerque headquarters.
Chatfield said Leyendecker’s firm would not reconsider closing the bank.
“I think a lot of the decisions have been made by the parent company,” Chatfield said Friday. New Mexico Bank & Trust is a subsidiary of HTLF, formerly known as Heartland Financial USA Inc., based in Iowa.
However, Chatfield said Leyendecker seemed “definitely open” to keeping the bank open longer so it can be sold to another banking entity.
Frost got the same impression.
“I’m optimistic they’ll give us more time to find a bank” for that location, Frost said Friday.
Frost said during a Quay County Commission meeting Monday he expects a definitive answer to their requests this week.
Frost said customers and Logan residents have filed complaints with the FDIC, which can “put the brakes” on the bank branch’s closing.
Leyendecker stated in an email earlier this month the Logan branch’s imminent closing “followed a careful evaluation of many factors, including operating expenses, employee resources and proximity to alternate locations.”
Leyendecker stated the Tucumcari branch remains open and available for Logan customers and that New Mexico Bank & Trust will continue to offer electronic services such as online and mobile banking, telephone banking and debit cards.
“We’ve informed our employees, all who have the opportunity to relocate or apply for open positions within the organization, and we are beginning to notify impacted customers,” he stated.
Several entities in Quay County have approved or are scheduled to vote on resolutions that petition New Mexico Bank & Trust to reconsider the branch’s closing or delay it so a new banking tenant can be found at the site on U.S. 54.
The county commission on Monday voted 2-1 to approve a resolution opposing the branch’s closing. Commissioners Franklin McCasland and Robert Lopez approved the measure.
Commissioner Jerri Rush, while sympathetic with Logan’s plight, said there has been too much “government overreach” in recent years, and it was not the commission’s jurisdiction to get involved with the decisions of a private business.
Frost said governmental entities in Quay County have a total of almost $40 million deposited in New Mexico Bank & Trust, including $12 million each by the county and City of Tucumcari.