Bankrate CFO DiMaria Resigns Amid SEC Probe, Names Steven Barnhart Interim CFO

(RTTNews) - Online financial information service provider Bankrate, Inc. (RATE) announced that long time CFO Edward DiMaria has resigned from the position amid regulatory investigations related to its 2012 financial reporting. DiMaria will remain the senior vice president.

DiMaria has served as CFO since April 2006. He has also served as the company's consultant from February 2006 until April 2006, assisting it with finance and accounting functions.

The North Palm Beach, Florida-based publisher of personal finance content has named Steven Barnhart as the interim CFO, effective immediately. He was most recently senior vice president and CFO of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores. He will report directly to Bankrate's President and CEO Kenneth Esterow.

"Steve brings to Bankrate deep financial and operating experience with online commerce and consumer services companies. We look forward to his contribution," Esterow said in a statement.

Prior to that, Esterow served as CFO at Bally Total Fitness. He also served in various executive leadership roles at Orbitz Worldwide, Inc. (OWW) from 2003 to 2009, including being the CFO, president and then CEO. Earlier, he served in various finance and strategy roles for PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP), and as finance director of southeast business unit of the Pepsi Bottling Group from 1990 to 2003.

Additionally, the company announced that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a non-public formal investigation relating to its financial reporting during 2012, with the principal focus on the first and second quarters of fiscal 2012.

The investigation is examining whether accounting entries in these periods may have improperly impacted the company's reported results, including relative to market expectations at such time.

The investigation is examining three accruals of revenue totaling about $781,000 in the aggregate and two adjustments to reduce accrued expenses totaling about $850,000 in the aggregate.

Following the SEC probe, Bankrate's audit committee, comprised of independent outside directors, concluded that the company's previously issued financial statements for each of fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013 should no longer be relied upon pending the conclusion of a full internal review of these matters, which is ongoing.

The audit committee is retaining additional counsel and independent forensic accountants, who will be assisted in this review by Barnhart.

RATE closed Friday's regular trading session at $13.82, up $0.02 on a volume of 0.46 million shares.