Arvest Bank announced Katie Crawford has been hired as a business development representative for Arvest Equipment Finance (AEF).
With more than 12 years of industry experience, Crawford most recently worked as a private banking advisor for Arvest in Benton County, AR. In her new role at AEF, a division of Arvest, Crawford will use her commercial lending experience to develop new vendor/dealer relationships throughout Northwest Arkansas. She will be based out of the Arvest location at Village on the Creeks in Rogers.
“We are excited to add Katie to our AEF team,” AEF President Eric Bunnell said. “As we continue to grow and expand our vendor program, we believe Katie can contribute by adding key relationships in Northwest Arkansas.”
Crawford earned a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from the University of Louisiana – Monroe.
AEF has also been recognized again by MonitorDaily. The publication recently released the 2018 Monitor 100, its annual ranking of the largest equipment finance/leasing companies in the United States. AEF climbed one spot to No. 84 after being ranked 85th last year. This is the fourth consecutive year AEF has been ranked on the list, landing at No. 100 in 2014 and No. 93 in 2015.
AEF ended 2017 with $248.6 million in loans and leases. That is up 5.9 percent from 2016’s $234.7 million, according to MonitorDaily.
“We continue to experience record growth in our overall production,” Bunnell said. “Our team does a great job of working with the lenders in the bank markets to find equipment finance opportunities, as well as developing new vendor relationships.”
AEF, a division of Arvest Bank, also ranked 50th on MonitorDaily’s list of the top 50 bank-owned equipment finance companies in the U.S. This marks the second time AEF has appeared on the top 50 list, which focuses on the performance of banks actively engaged in the equipment finance industry, including net asset size, new business activity and market share, as well as other portfolio metrics, highlights and forecasts.
Additionally, AEF ranked 48th in production within the bank-owned segment, up two spots from last year.
“The AEF team is very committed and takes a lot of pride in these accomplishments,” Bunnell said. “Our associates are dedicated and work hard to exceed customers’ expectations, which makes AEF successful.”