A veteran banker who helped shore up East Tennessee’s biggest independent bank two years ago has been hired to engineer another bank turnaround at Northwest Georgia Bank.
Steve Rownd, a 31-year career banker who previously served as state president for Capital Bank in Knoxville, is the new president and chief executive for Northwest Georgia Bank. He fills the vacancy left when Wesley Smith, the bank’s previous president for 35 years, retired in February.
“I’m extremely optimistic about the future of the bank with Steve Rownd as CEO,” said Hugh Peterson Jr., the chairman of the executive committee at Northwest Georgia Bank whose family owns a majority of the bank’s stock. “Mr. Rownd has tremendous experience and we’re going to pursue whatever avenue is best to maintain the bank and grow it and bring it back to its former self or even better. He brings great experience in managing banks and turning them around and finding capital.”
Northwest Georgia is the biggest and oldest bank in Catoosa County and operates five offices in North Georgia and four offices across the state border in Hamilton County. The 109-year-old bank, based in Ringgold, Ga., has $435.4 million in assets. But it has lost more than $30 million in the past five years due to real estate and other loan losses, according to filings with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Northwest Georgia has operated under a federal consent order and increased regulatory oversight since 2010 because of its weakened capital position. Peterson said his family has made additional investments in the bank during the recession and he said the board is looking “at all options” to help recapitalize the bank, including a possible merger with another bank or additional stock issue.