West Bank becomes $1 billion bank
West Bancorporation Inc., the parent company of West Des Moines State Bank, said its fourth-quarter profits rose by 1 percent and its total assets topped $1 billion for the first time in its history at year’s end.
Net income grew to $4.42 million, or 28 cents a share, from $4.38 million, or 27 cents, a year ago. Total assets rose 13 percent to $1 billion from $886.1 million, boosted by the rising stock market and higher level of lending. The company, based in West Des Moines, also said its former chairman and chief executive, David Miller, would resign from its board of directors in April.
Under the leadership of former investment banker Thomas Stanberry, who succeeded Millar as chairman and chief executive on March 1, 2003, the amount of loans outstanding as of Dec. 31 jumped 23 percent to $593.4 million from $484 million a year ago. The value of securities held rose 29 percent to $275 million from $212.3 million.
West Bank said it had a loss of $82,000 related to WB Capital Management Inc., which began operations on Oct. 1. WB Capital Management was created following the company’s purchase of VMF Capital LLC, Iowa’s largest independent investment advisory firm.
Miller, who turned the bank into one of the nation’s most profitable for its size, said he would retire from the bank’s board on April 15. Miller, who joined the bank in 1961, will remain a consultant to the company, an arrangement that will last the rest of his life. Fellow board member Raymond Johnston, who joined the bank in 1984 as a senior vice president, also said he’d retire from the board at the same time.
The company also said it had received $821,000 in non-taxable life insurance proceeds as a result of the death of an employee. West Bank said it would form a charitable foundation and contribute $1.33 million, the pre-tax equivalent to the payment received from the policy, to the fund. West Bank said the transactions had no effect on profits.