Arvest Equipment Finance closed more than $161 million in new production in 2018, a record total for the Arvest Bank division.

That represents a 52% increase in gross production year-over-year.

“I am proud of this team accomplishment and excited about our future growth,” said AEF President Eric Bunnell. “John Bradford, AEF sales manager, has done an excellent job leading the sales team in this record production. We continue to see strong support from the commercial lenders throughout the bank footprint and increase our presence in their markets. The vendor production also continues to grow as we expand our external sales team and work with more dealers to offer financing solutions for their customers.”

AEF additionally increased its total portfolio from $248.6 million to $310.1 million – a 24.7% jump – from 2017 to 2018.

AEF also promoted Matt Crawley to division control manager, John Harders to operations manager and Josh Smith to vendor program manager. All three hold CLFP designations.

Crawley previously served as AEF’s asset manager. In his new role, he will oversee the compliance, controls and audits, among other responsibilities.

Harders had served as an AEF sales support specialist since 2009. He will manage AEF’s bank sales support specialists in his new role.

Smith was promoted from vendor sales support specialist and will oversee AEF’s vendor operations while managing the vendor sales specialists and administrators. Smith has been with AEF since 2015.

“These three managers will help guide and lead our team to continued growth,” Bunnell said. “It is always satisfying when we can promote from within.”

Headquartered in Fort Smith, AK, with locations in Little Rock, Kansas City and Tulsa, Arvest Equipment Finance does business throughout Arvest Bank’s four-state footprint. The bank was named one of “America’s Best Large Employers” for 2018 by Forbes magazine.