WILSON BANK HOLDING COMPANY
WILSON BANK HOLDING COMPANY
623 West Main Street
Lebanon, Tennessee 37087
October 25, 2005
VIA EDGAR
Nili Shah
Accounting Branch Chief
Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, D.C. 20549-7010
Dear Ms. Shah:
This letter is in response to your comment letter dated October 6, 2005 with respect to the
following documents filed by Wilson Bank Holding Company (the Company):
Form 10-K for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004 Filed March 16, 2005
Form 10-K/A for Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004 Filed April 29, 2005
Form 10-Q for the Fiscal Quarters Ended March 31, 2005 and June 30, 2005
File No. 0-20402
We would appreciate the opportunity to discuss our proposed responses with you to determine if
they appropriately address the concerns of the staff (the Staff) of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the Commission). We have prepared these responses with the assistance of our counsel
and the proposed responses have been read by our independent registered public accounting firm,
Maggart & Associates, P.C. (Maggart & Associates).
In accordance with your letter dated September 2, 2005, the Company acknowledges that the
adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in any Company filing is the responsibility of the Company
and that Staff comments or changes to disclosures in response to Staff comments do not foreclose
the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing. The Company also acknowledges
that it may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or
any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.
Form 10-K/A for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2004
Report of Management on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, page 4
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We note your response to comment 1, 2, and 3 in our letter dated September 2, 2005.
Specifically, we note your reference to Maggart & Associates, P.C.s (Maggart) preparation
of the annual financial statements as a mechanical process. Please tell us what you mean
by that reference. In this regard, please clarify whether Maggarts involvement in the
preparation of your financial statements solely related to a word processing type-function.
Further, please tell us specifically who wrote the disclosures in notes 1, 2, 3, 12, and 21.
Your response should also include a description of the steps
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taken by Maggart to prepare the draft annual financial statements versus what your participation was in
preparing the draft financial statements. We may have further comment. |
Response: Set forth below is a description of the process by which the Companys
audited consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 were
prepared. The Company believes that the involvement of Maggart &
Associates in this process was one that was mechanical in nature and did not involve a
level of participation by Maggart & Associates that would result in Maggart & Associates
having been responsible for the preparation of the financial
statements or in the inability of the Companys chief executive officer and chief financial
officer to conclude that the Companys disclosure controls and procedures were effective as
of December 31, 2004. The Companys management and accounting personnel had exclusive
control over, and generated, without the assistance of Maggart & Associates, all source data
such as trial balances, general ledger account reconciliations, financial worksheets and
required call reports. This information was subsequently provided to Maggart & Associates,
who thereafter applied its audit procedures to this information and proposed any adjustments
that it believed were appropriate. Once the Company and Maggart & Associates reached
agreement on any proposed adjustments, account groupings were made for each of the agreed
upon trial balances for each of the Companys three bank subsidiaries (which subsequent to
December 31, 2004 have been merged into one entity) with any consolidating eliminations
being made. The resulting entries were approved by the Companys chief executive officer
and chief financial officer. Once a balanced consolidated trial balance was generated,
Maggart & Associates report department entered this information into a balance sheet and
income statement format using the Companys prior year balance sheet and income statement
format as a guide. Maggart & Associates report department then input the raw source data
provided by the Company into its word processing system to generate a typed draft of the
footnotes to the audited financial statements using the prior years footnotes as a guide.
This draft of the audited financial statements and related footnotes was then reviewed by
the engagement senior and engagement partner for Maggart & Associates.
Once the information provided by the Company was input into the audited financial
statements, the information required by Guide 3 was compiled from the information contained
in these financial statements, footnotes and other information generated by the Company.
The draft audited financial statements and typed Guide 3 information was then provided to,
and reviewed by, the Companys chief executive officer and chief financial officer and used
by the Company in the preparation of Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations (MD&A). The Companys chief financial officer then
discussed any changes or corrections to the annual, audited consolidated financial
statements with representatives of Maggart & Associates and all agreed upon changes were
then communicated to Maggart & Associates report department and a new draft of these
financial statements (including footnotes) and Guide 3 information was circulated until
neither the Company nor Maggart & Associates had any additional changes.
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At this point the draft audited financial statements and related footnotes, Maggart &
Associates letter on internal controls, the Guide 3 information, the selected financial
data table and MD&A were provided to the Companys audit committee and the Companys audit
committee met with representatives of Maggart & Associates to discuss these items.
Following this meeting, these items, along with the remaining portions of the Form 10-K,
were distributed to, and discussed with, the Companys board of directors prior to their
being finalized.
The initial draft of note 1 was prepared by Maggart & Associates report
department using the prior years information. The information related to the summary of
the Companys significant accounting policies was then updated by Company personnel for
those policy changes implemented by the Company or any of its bank subsidiaries during the
2004 fiscal year. The section related to the impact of any new accounting standards was
suggested by Maggart & Associates.
The financial data required for the preparation of note 2 was generated by the
Company using its operations software and was reconciled by Company personnel to the
Companys general ledger and trial balances and used in the preparation of the
Companys bank subsidiaries required call
reports filed with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The financial data was then
provided to Maggart & Associates whose accounting personnel input the data into the form of
note 2 prepared by Maggart & Associates report department based on the prior years note 2.
A significant portion of the financial data within note 2 was also compiled by the Company
on a quarterly basis for inclusion in the quarterly reports filed by the Company with the
Commission and the Companys bank subsidiaries call reports. As described in the Companys
response letter dated September 23, 2005, the initial drafts of these quarterly reports and
the call reports for the 2004 fiscal year were prepared solely by the Company. The textual
portions of note 2 were generated from the prior years footnotes with the changes from the
prior year being drafted by the Company.
All financial data for note 3 was generated by the Company, including the cost of these
investments and their estimated market value and Company personnel also reconciled this data
to the Companys general ledger and trial balances. The form of the table for the Companys
other than temporarily impaired securities was provided to the Company by Maggart &
Associates, but all of the information to complete the tables was generated by the Companys
personnel and provided to Maggart & Associates for inclusion in the typed draft of the
financial statement footnotes. The textual portions of note 3 were generated from the prior
years footnotes with the added paragraphs relating to other than temporary impairment and
the ability of the Company to sell the securities being suggested by Maggart & Associates.
The financial data for note 12 was prepared by the Company in connection with the
preparation and filing of the Companys bank subsidiaries quarterly call reports and was
provided to Maggart & Associates for inclusion in the typed draft of the financial
statements and related footnotes. This financial data was also prepared by the Company for
inclusion in its 2004 quarterly reports filed by it with the Commission, the initial
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drafts of which were prepared solely by the Company. The textual portions of note 12 were
generated from the prior years footnotes with the added paragraph relating to standby
letters of credit being suggested by Maggart & Associates.
The textual portions of note 21 were prepared from the prior years note 21 with
the changes relating to the length of time for which standby letters of credit were issued
being drafted by the Company. The carrying amounts set out in the table were amounts that
were provided to Maggart & Associates by the Company for inclusion in the balance sheet and
note 3. The data set out under the heading Fair Value for the financial assets and
financial liabilities was generated from Company-prepared discounted cash flow spreadsheets
using current rates as compared to contracted rates. These spreadsheets were originally
established with the assistance of Maggart & Associates in 1992.
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You further state that Maggart prepared the annual financial statements but not the annual
reports filed with the SEC. While Maggart may not have prepared the actual Form 10-K filed
with the SEC, Maggart was involved in the preparation of the annual financial statements
included within the Form 10-K. Preparation of the Form 10-K, including its contents, are part
of your disclosure controls and procedures. If Maggarts participation did involve
summarizing financial data to arrive at the consolidated financial statements and/or the
drafting of footnote disclosure to comply with U.S.GAAP disclosure requirements, please tell
us how you were able to conclude your disclosure controls and procedures were effective,
taking into consideration your disclosure controls and procedures are to operate on their own
without participation of your auditors. We may have further comment. |
Response: The Company believes that the process by which its annual report on Form
10-K for the 2004 fiscal year was prepared, including Maggart & Associates participation in
the preparation of the financial statements and related footnotes from data generated and
prepared by Company personnel, was achieved within a framework of disclosure controls and
procedures that were effective at December 31, 2004. All financial data required to be
included in the financial statements and footnotes was accumulated by Company personnel
using systems and processes prepared by and under the control of the Company. This
financial data was generated without the assistance of Maggart & Associates and was used by
Company personnel in preparing other regulatory reports required to be filed by the
Company or its bank subsidiaries. This information was then provided to Maggart &
Associates for inclusion in the draft financial statements which
thereafter applied its audit procedures to the Company-provided information and discussed
with the Companys management any issues discovered during this process. The Company
believes that these discussions would be similar to those that any issuer would have with
its registered independent public accounting firm following a review by the firm of an
initial draft of the financial statements and related footnotes prepared solely by Company
personnel. The Company does not believe that the fact that these discussions were being
held while Maggart & Associates report department was preparing a typed draft of the
financial statements and related footnotes from Company-provided information should result
in its management being unable to conclude that the Companys disclosure controls and
procedures were
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effective at December 31, 2004. Further, the Company believes that it is
common practice for issuers to provide drafts of annual and quarterly
reports, including the financial data contained therein, to the
issuers independent registered public accounting firm for their review and comment and that
such review and participation by the independent registered public accounting firm in this
disclosure process should not automatically result in an issuers disclosure controls and
procedures being ineffective.
The Company also believes that the process by which its quarterly reports on Form
10-Q were prepared during the 2004 fiscal year makes it reasonable for the Companys
management to have concluded that the Companys disclosure controls and procedures were
effective at December 31, 2004. Company personnel were completely responsible for the
preparation of the initial drafts of the Companys quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, including
the financial statements and footnotes contained therein and managements discussion and
analysis of financial condition and results of operations. The financial information
contained in these Forms 10-Q made up a substantial portion of the financial information
included within the Companys annual audited consolidated financial statements and related
footnotes and was initially prepared completely by the Company.
In addition, the Companys senior officers review the Companys quarterly and annual
reports, including any financial information contained therein, with others within the
Company to ensure that all information required to be included in the reports under the
Commissions rules and regulations is so included. The Companys size and limited
geographic scope of operations allows all of the members of senior management to be located
within one building. The members of the Companys senior management, including the chief
executive officer and chief financial officer, are actively involved in the day-to-day
operations of the Company and the performance of the Companys bank subsidiaries. The
Company believes that this level of involvement by its senior management, particularly its
chief executive officer and chief financial officer, make it reasonable for the chief
executive officer and chief financial officer to have concluded that the assistance provided
by Maggart & Associates in the preparation of the Companys audited financial statements and
related footnotes for the 2004 fiscal year did not result in the Companys disclosure
controls and procedures being ineffective at December 31, 2004.
As further support for its conclusion regarding the effectiveness of its disclosure
controls and procedures, the Company notes that to the best of its knowledge its disclosures
for the year ended December 31, 2004 were true and complete in all material respects at the
time made and included the information required to be included therein.
Finally, as described in the Companys original response letter dated September 23,
2005, the Company believes that it will be able to remedy the material weakness in its
internal control over financial reporting identified in its Form 10-K for the fiscal year
ended December 31, 2004 by having the Companys personnel prepare the initial draft of the
annual, audited consolidated financial statements and footnotes for the fiscal year ending
December 31, 2005 and for each subsequent fiscal year.
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If you have any questions concerning our responses to your questions and comments, please do
not hesitate to contact the undersigned, at (615) 444-2265 or by facsimile at (615) 443-7117, or
our outside counsel, Bob F. Thompson or D. Scott Holley, at (615) 742-6200 or by facsimile at (615)
742-2762.
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Sincerely,
/s/ J. Randall Clemons
J. Randall Clemons
President and Chief Executive Officer
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