December 11, 2006 www.bankersdigest.com Volume 129, No. 24 IBERIABANK Corp. Announces Brown Move to BOKNames Maun CEO, IBERIABANK Corporation, Lafay- through the acquisition of Pocahontas Bank of Kansas City, ette, LA, the holding company for Bancorp. Inc in Jonesboro, announced Tulsa, OK-based BOK Financial Corp. IBERIABANK, has announced that in July 2006. has entered the “heart of America” with senior executive As part of his promotion, Brown will the launch of its newest subsidiary, vice president Mi- relocate to Little Rock. Bank of Kansas City. chael Brown has Brown joined IBERIABANK in 1999. Marc Maun, chairman and CEO been given addi- Earlier, he served with Bank One of Bank of Kansas City, opened the tional responsibili- Louisiana as chief credit officer for the 30-employee full-service bank in mid- ties to include the commerical line of business in LA. He November in the Lighton Tower in management of all has also served as a capital markets Overland Park, KS. He reported in an of the company’s specialist and as a corporate finance article by Kirby Lee Davis in The Journal markets operat- advisor. The chartered financial analyst Record that “within five years we expect ing under IBERIA- (CFA) previously served with First Com- to be one of the top 10 banks in the BANK Corp., including LA, AR, TN, merce Corporation in New Orleans as area, and hopefully in the top five.” and OK. In addition, his current wealth senior vice president, manager of credit The bank will focus on the commercial management responsibilities include and client services, and with Wachovia middle market and consumer business. the trust business to be acquired in AR Bank in treasury services Q He also said the bank is in the process of acquiring a MO bank charter that will First Financial Trust Co. Ups Thaxton and Young fulfill its name in an 18-county Kansas First Financial Bankshares Inc., Abilene, Financial, Abilene, as an assistant trust City metropolis. In addition, all of BOK TX, recently announced the promotion officer. He served with InterFirst Bank Financial’s operations, except a food of Kirk W. Thaxton, CTFA, to presi- in Abilene for several years, then re- and agribusiness lending group, have dent/CEO of First joined First Finan- merged into Bank of Kansas City. Financial Trust & cial in 1989. He has Maun has served with Bank of Okla- Asset Management served on the leg- homa in Tulsa for 21 years. He most re- Company, N.A., ef- islative and educa- cently managed the corporate banking fective January 1, tion committees of department, and earlier the commercial 2007. the Texas Bankers lending staff, national and regional Thaxton replaces Association wealth lending, among other duties Robert S. Patter- management and Q son who is retiring trust division. Please route this issue: after 12 years as In addition, D. president and CEO. Richard Young, Patterson will remain on the First Fi- CPA, has been promoted to executive nancial Trust board and will continue to vice president and manager of the In This Issue... work as a consultant for the company. Abilene trust office, the position that He was instrumental in forming the Thaxton vacates. He is a nine-year A Debtor by Any Other Name trust company in 2003. company employee. Thaxton, a certified trust and finan- Young received a BBA degree in Is Still a Debtor cial advisor, graduated from Abilene accounting and a masters degree in fi- Legal Phases..................................3 Christian University in 1983 with a nance from Hardin-Simmons University BBA degree in accounting. He also in Abilene. The 20-year banker joined Charter Activity............................8 completed the National Graduate Trust First Financial Trust & Asset Manage- School at Northwestern University. ment in 1997 as a senior vice president Classified.......................................9 He began his trust career with First Q P E O P L E TEXAS Lynch Named EVP, the promotion of Stephen Tyrone PlainsCapital Taps Ni- First Bank Farmersville Lynch to executive vice president and renberg and Litton First Bank Farmersville has announced senior lender. PlainsCapital Bank, Lubbock, has an- Lynch joined First Bank as senior nounced the appointments of Alan vice president in November 2005 from Nirenberg and Mike Litton as senior Gateway National Bank, Mesquite. He is vice president in Austin and Round responsible for coordinating all lending Rock, respectively. operations, including lenders in Lavon Nirenberg has been named senior and Princeton. vice president of commercial lending. He is a 2003 graduate of Southwest- He will be responsible for managing a ern Graduate School of Banking at SMU commercial and real estate loan port- and New Mexico State University folio while fostering new and existing Q business relationships. The 19-year banker, served as Austin branch presi- dent of First National Bank in Edinburg prior to joining PlainsCapital. He is an RED BOOK active member of the Real Estate Coun- cil of Austin and serves on the advisory board for Caritas of Austin. He earned a BBA degree in finance from The Uni- versity of Texas at Austin. Litton has been named senior vice president of small business lending. He will manage current banking needs of small business customers while extensively developing PlainsCapital’s SBA lending program. Prior to join- ing PlainsCapital, he was senior vice president and director of SBA lending for La Grange-based State Bank/Texas United Bancshares. He is a member of both the National Association of Gov- ernment Guaranteed Lenders and the Central Texas Government Guaranteed Lenders Association. He holds a BBA degree in marketing from The University BANKERS DI- of Texas at Austin Established 1942 Q A Weekly Bank News Magazine (USPS 041180) Visit Bankers Digest on-line Published every Monday at Dallas, Texas to order or renew a Copyright 2006 Bankers Digest® subscription: BONNIE JAMISON BLACKMAN, Publisher/Editor R. GILBERT BLACKMAN, Managing Editor www.bankersdigest.com 9550 Forest Lane, Suite 125 Dallas, Texas 75243-5928 Phone 214/221-4544 Fax 214/221-4546 E-mail: [email protected] website: www.bankersdigest.com Subscription rate: One year $32.00, single copy $1.00 Opinions expressed by columnists and writ- IBS ers of bylined articles are not necessarily those of Bankers Digest. Editorial guidelines may be obtained upon request. Articles and photos may be submitted to above address or sent via e-mail. Periodical postage paid at Dallas, Texas POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bankers Digest®, 9550 Forest Lane, Suite 125, Dallas, Texas 75243-5928. Page 2 BANKERS DIGEST December 11, 2006 L E G A L P H A S E S D U E D I L I G E N C debtor well enough under federal law. of State search result, suggesting The IRS had filed its liens abbreviating they search for slightly different or A Debtor by Any Other certain aspects of the debtor’s name but abbreviated names of the debtor. The maintaining the critical “Spearing Tool” IRS was determined to have a first Name Is Still a Debtor core of the name. priority security interest on all of the By In the case of Spearing Tool and assets which the Bank had taken as Don Gwin Manufacturing Co. Inc., Debtor v. Crestmark collateral for its loan. SettlePou Bank; Crestmark Financial Corporation, This case contains important Dallas, Texas Appellees, 4112 F.3d 653, (6th Cir. 2005), lessons. When performing lien searches www.settlepou.com the Court ruled in favor of the IRS, automatically, you “get what you ask applying a more liberal notice standard for.” If you order a search in one name A recent United than that contained in the Uniform only, then the search will not include States Court Commercial Code. The Court noted that other names. Lien searches should of Appeals while a U.C.C. financing statement filed be broadly cast so that other possible d e c i s i o n under the abbreviated and truncated combinations of abbreviations and s h o w s t h e name used by the IRS would ordinarily truncations of a name are searched. importance of have been ineffective, under state law, This is the format provided by pursuing making careful the IRS is held to a lesser standard the Texas Secretary of State “Wild Card lien searches as part of the lender’s due under the IRS Code and held that the Search” for online search and is the diligence process, especially as regards IRS liens need not “perfectly identify” format provided by private companies federal tax liens. the taxpayer, but must only “sufficiently providing search results. Although the Crestmark Bank (“Bank”) was identify” a taxpayer so that a lender is additional names on the lien search may making a loan to Spearing Tool placed on notice for further inquiry. cost the Bank more money and effort at and Manufacturing Co. Crestmark Here, the use of the combination of the the beginning of the loan process, that documented the loan internally and words “Spearing Tool” was held to have expense is insignificant when compared searched the public records for U.C.C. placed Crestmark on reasonable notice to the cost of writing off a loan Q financing statements and federal that a tax lien may have been asserted tax liens that could have affected its against its customer. Crestmark had, in lien position in the collateral. The fact, received a prompt in their Secretary search reflected no liens or financing statements filed under the specific name which the Bank searched; namely, Spearing Tool and Manufacturing Co., which was the exact legal name of the debtor. The Bank then entered into a credit arrangement with Spearing, and Spearing granted the Bank a security interest in certain assets, which security interest was perfected through the filing of a U.C.C.