Shares of Tennessee Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Franklin plummeted Monday after the company said it had found "material weaknesses" with its internal controls and had put its chief financial officer on paid leave.
The $899 million-asset Tennessee Commerce said late Friday that it would miss the March 17 deadline for filing its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as it works to correct the deficiencies.
But Arthur F. Helf, the chairman and chief executive officer, said in an interview Monday that he does not expect previously reported results to be affected. Tennessee Commerce said that its managers and an independent auditor had found the weaknesses, which it did not specify. George W. Fort, the CFO, has been put on paid administrative leave but is participating in the "assessment" effort, the company said. H. Lamar Cox, Tennessee Commerce's chief administrative officer, has been named the acting CFO.
By late Monday afternoon Tennessee Commerce's stock had fallen 9.14%, to $16.01. The company said in January that its fourth-quarter net income rose 33.2% from a year earlier, to $2.1 million, and that full-year earnings rose 45.2%, to $6.9 million.
