Oregon Public Broadcasting

A small local bank, Oregon Pacific Bancorp, announced Thursday, it’s planning to reduce its number of shareholders – so it no longer has to pay for expensive annual audits. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

After Enron collapsed in 2000, Congress passed a series of laws to improve company oversight.

For large businesses, the expense of extra audits was more easily absorbed. But for smaller companies, like Oregon Pacific Bancorp, it represents a $90,000-a-year bill.

By having a reverse stock split, the company plans to have fewer than 300 shareholders and free itself of the SEC requirements.

Spokeswoman, Joanne Forsberg, says there’ll still be plenty of oversight.

Joanne Fosberg: “We have the federal reserve bank and the state examining us on a regular basis. And we have outside auditors too. So we believe that our shareholders certainly will know that we’re on the up and up with everything we do.”

Stockholders will be asked to approve the plan at a meeting in March.

Many small businesses around the nation are taking similar steps.