First Security Sizzling

OK, so it wasn’t a $50 million quarter like Bank of the Ozarks reported last week.

But then again, First Security Bank’s second consecutive $20 million quarter wasn’t pumped up with profits from FDIC-assisted acquisitions, without which BOZ’s bottom line would have been $13.8 million in the second quarter.

Specifically, the Rutledge family bank had net income of $20.62 million in the quarter that ended June 30, according to the call report filed last week with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, up slightly from the $20.28 million it netted in the first quarter.

First Security’s year-to-date net income of $40.9 million compares very favorably with $30.4 million in the first two quarters of 2010, and is on pace to shatter last year’s $66.9 million.

CEO Reynie Rutledge, as usual, said the Searcy bank had been “lucky.” And he suggested that such a profit level would not be sustainable as regulations and market conditions change.