Four Oaks Bank in North Carolina has named Warren "Rocky" Herring its chief credit officer.
Herring had held the same job at Premier Commercial Bank in Greensboro, N.C., before NewBridge Bancorp bought it last month.
The $821 million-asset Four Oaks endured a tough 2014. It paid $1.2 million to settle allegations brought by the Justice Department's Operation Choke Point that it allowed a third-party vendor to illegally process payments on behalf of merchants, including the operators of a fraudulent payday lending scheme. It reported a $4.2 million loss on the year, primarily blaming nonperforming loans.
Its former chief operating and credit officer, Cliff Painter, retired in September. David Rupp was named COO at that time, and the credit chief job had remained open until the hiring of Herring.
"We have diligently searched for the right individual for this important position," Rupp said in a press release Wednesday. "We are fortunate to have someone of Rocky's caliber to complete our executive team."
Herring has 20 years of lending experience and a master's of divinity from the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
