First Security Bank in Montana Freed from Prompt Corrective Action

First Security Bank of Malta in Montana has been freed from a prompt corrective action issued by the Federal Reserve Board.

The June 2012 order gave First Security 30 days to raise capital or sell itself to another institution. First Security was also barred from accepting new deposit accounts and renewing any time deposits with above-average interest rates unless it received regulatory approval and addressed its capital status.

The $33.7 million-asset First Security had a 9.9% Tier 1 leverage ratio and a 19.7% total risk-based capital ratio as of Dec. 31, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

First Security's financial position was jeopardized by its former vice president of operations, Rhonda Lee DeVries, who embezzled roughly $3.7 million from the bank between 2001 and 2012. DeVries stole the money in order to pay off credit card debt, according to court documents. She pleaded guilty to charges of bank fraud, credit card fraud and money laundering in 2012 and was sentenced by a U.S. district court in Montana to over nine years in federal prison.