Central Thought

It seems that something’s always going on at Arvest Bank Group, and here’s the latest: The Jim Walton-led holding company is among a growing line of banks that made brief inquiries into the possibility of buying Little Rock’s Central Bank & Trust.

Arvest joins a list of would-be suitors that includes First United Bancshares Inc. of El Dorado, Union Planters Corp. of Memphis, National Bank of Commerce in Memphis, Bank of Oklahoma and Bank of the Ozarks in Little Rock.

The $100 million-asset Central Bank & Trust, built from the ruins of Jim McDougal’s Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan, is controlled by Bob Wilson and the family of the late George Pitts Jr.

“Thanks but no thanks” has been the response to acquisition-minded lenders who have called on the bank interested in pitching woo and corporate courtship.