Local banks opt out

Arvest Bank opts out of Treasury’s capital purchase program

(Excerpt:) Arvest, Oklahoma’s third-largest bank based on deposits, is the latest local banking operation to announce that it will not participate in the Capital Purchase Program. Bank of Oklahoma, the state’s largest deposit-holder, and BancFirst, the third-largest bank, earlier said their strong capitalization would allow them to defer capital infusion from the Treasury.

Southwest Bancorp, parent of the state’s seventh-largest bank, Stillwater National Bank & Trust, will participate in the Treasury program.

However, Arvest will participate in the Temporary Account Guaranty Program, which provides full FDIC deposit insurance protection for noninterest-bearing accounts and for some deposit accounts that pay less than 0.5 percent interest, Sabin said. The expanded FDIC coverage will extend through Dec. 31, 2009.