Plains State Bank of Hutchinson and Salina expands, adding Anthony and Harper branches

For more than a century, Plains State Bank, founded in Plains, Kansas, with newly-acquired branches in Hutchinson and Salina, has had branches in six rural regions. By September this year, they plan to include two new branches in Harper and Anthony.

Plains State Bank vice president of corporate innovation and management Cooper Clawson said the company acquired the branches from BancCentral, National Association.

"(The Anthony and Harper branches) are their only two Kansas branches, so it was a natural fit, especially with the communities being predominantly in a rural agriculture focus," Clawson said.

Plains State Bank's expansion across Kansas

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In 2018, Plains State acquired Bank VI in Salina with two locations and recently opened a branch location in Hutchinson and Great Bend — with its agreement with BancCentral, it will bring the company's branches to eight.

The company began as a family-owned business, and today Clawson said it is still "predominantly family-owned."

"We were founded back in Plains, in western Kansas in 1906, and largely focus on western and central Kansas," Cooper Clawson said. "Our background is in agriculture but also commercial lending."

Plains Bancshares, Inc., the bank's parent company, board of directors agreed on the acquisition this spring.

Plains Bancshares chairman Daniel Clawson stated in a release he saw the Harper and Anthony communities as an opportunity for growth.

"Our own family has deep rural Kansas roots, and we do not take the responsibility of serving and financing local businesses and customers lightly," Daniel Clawson stated.

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At the Salina Bank VI branches, they chose to partner with the staff already working at the bank before the acquisition in 2018, which they plan to mirror for Anthony and Harper.

"We see ourselves growing with the community," Clawson said. "Not only just being able to make them successful but making it simple."