ST. LOUIS FED SELECTS ALBERTO MUSALEM AS

Next President And Ceo

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis announced in January that Alberto G. Musalem will be its next president and chief executive officer. In this role, Musalem will represent the Eighth Federal Reserve District in national monetary policymaking on the Federal Open Market Committee and will lead the 1,500 employees of the St. Louis Fed. He will begin his role on April 2, 2024, and replace James Bullard, who left the post to take a job in academia.

Musalem has a background as an economist and executive with public and private sector experience in economic policy, finance and markets.

Musalem was CEO and co-chief investment officer of Evince Asset Management LP (2018-’22), a quantitative investment technology company that he co-founded in 2018. From 2014 to 2017, he was executive vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and senior advisor to the president.

Musalem also was managing director, partner and global head of Research of Tudor Investment Corporation (2000-’13), where he was a member of the firm’s Management, Capital Allocation and Strategy committees and worked with diverse groups of portfolio managers, globally and across asset classes, on investment strategies grounded on the relation between economic policy, macroeconomic performance and markets.

Earlier in his career, Musalem was an economist at the International Monetary Fund.

He is an adjunct professor of finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and serves on the boards of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) and Man Group. He will step down from these positions before taking office.

Musalem earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He was born in Bogota, Colombia, and lived in Brazil and Argentina before emigrating to the U.S. and graduating from the public school system in Maryland.

Headquartered in St. Louis, with branches in Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis serves the states that comprise the Federal Reserve’s Eighth District, which includes all of Arkansas, eastern Missouri, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and northern Mississippi.

ARVEST OPPORTUNITY FUND DISTRIBUTED OVER $7 MILLION IN LOANS IN 2023

Arvest Opportunity Fund, a subsidiary of Fayettevillechartered Arvest Bank, assisted 245 small business customers with $7.16 million in loans in 2023. The company shared the details in a recent news release.

Launched in August 2022 across four states, the program provides loans, lines of credit and financial education to small businesses that don’t meet traditional bank credit requirements.

The program acts as a bridge for customers to eventually access traditional bank products and services.

Of the applicants who went through the full 12-month small business loan program with the Arvest Opportunity Fund, 70% had an average increase of 41 points in their credit score.

“In order for our customers to be successful, we have to have equal focus on lending and education,” said Hillis Schild, Arvest Opportunity Fund executive director. “Although we’re still relatively early in our journey, our customers who take full advantage of the educational programming are seeing promising results. We are very proud of them as they move forward in reaching their financial goals.”

Fnbc Hires Nelson Lively In Sba Lending Division

Nelson Lively has been hired by FNBC Bank as its Business Development Officer for its SBA lending division.

“I am excited to have Nelson join our growing team of SBA lending experts,” said Edward Haddock, Senior Vice President for Small Business Lending. “I have known and worked with Nelson in the past and am confident his immense SBA knowledge will serve FNBC and its clients well.”

Lively brings more than 20 years of banking and business development experience, most recently working as an SBA broker. In this new role, he will be responsible for developing growth strategies that increase FNBC’s production of government guaranteed SBA 7(a) loans, as well as actively prospecting and cultivating a network of strategic partnerships that generate new business opportunities for FNBC’s SBA lending division.

He will serve prospects and clients throughout Ash Flat-based FNBC’s Arkansas and Missouri footprint and beyond.

ST. LOUIS FED LITTLE ROCK BRANCH ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has announced the following changes to its Little Rock Branch board of directors, effective Jan. 1:

Jamie J. Henry, vice president of finance, emerging payments at Walmart Inc. in Bentonville, has been elected board chair for 2024 by the Branch board of directors. He has served on the board since 2019.

Jennifer J. Anglin, senior site director of Pernod Ricard in Fort Smith, has been appointed by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to a three-year term.

Denise Thomas, CEO of World Trade Center Arkansas, University of Arkansas, in Rogers, has been reappointed by the St. Louis Fed board of directors to a three-year term. She has served on the board since 2022.

Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc. in Little Rock, has been reappointed by the St. Louis Fed board of directors to a three-year term. He has served on the board since 2021.

Also serving on the board are:

Christopher B. Hegi, president and CEO of First Financial Bank in El Dorado; Jeff Lynch, president and CEO of Eagle Bank & Trust Co. in Little Rock; and Allison J. H. Thompson, president and CEO of the Economic Development Alliance for Jefferson County, Arkansas in Pine Bluff.

Members of the St. Louis Fed’s board of directors and those of its branch boards in Little Rock, Louisville, Ky., and Memphis, Tenn., are familiar with the economic and credit conditions of their respective regions.

Their observations — along with the economic data and information gathered and analyzed by St. Louis Fed staff — help ensure that local conditions are represented in Federal Open Market Committee deliberations in Washington, D.C.