Arvest Widens Lead as Statewide Bank Deposits Grow by 2.7%

Bank deposits in Arkansas grew by 2.7 percent in the 12 months that ended June 30, according to the annual summary of deposits released Oct. 1 by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Arvest Bank of Fayetteville grew its in-state deposits $867.3 million, or 15.5 percent, to $6.45 billion. That total represents 12 percent of statewide deposit total of $53.38 billion, and Arvest stretched out its market lead over No. 2 Regions Bank.

“We’ve had very good success attracting new households,” said Lorrie Madden, executive vice president and sales manager for Arvest Benton County. “Then when a customer comes in to open a checking account, a lot of times they bring in other business, too.

“Our associates are very good at developing those relationships, and that’s what we’re all about — finding the right solutions for our customers.”

Regions, based in Birmingham, Ala., also added deposits — almost $40 million more, to $4.28 billion. But because that growth was less than 1 percent, its share of the statewide market fell slightly to 8 percent.

The FDIC’s summary of deposits is a snapshot taken at midyear by the government agency that insures bank deposits. It is not a holistic report card on the health of a bank or of the banking industry, but it is the only official report that provides Arkansas-specific trend data for multistate banks.

The remaining 80 percent of the state’s bank deposits are divided among 142 banks doing business in the state. But almost exactly half of Arkansas bank deposits are parked in the top 10 banks. Here’s a rundown of deposit trends among the rest of the top-10 banks:

• First Security Bank of Searcy took the No. 3 spot away from Bank of America by growing its deposits by 6.4 percent to $3.25 billion. That’s an increase in deposits of $208.7 million.

• Bank of America of Charlotte, N.C., dropped to No. 4 after its in-state deposits declined by 6.5 percent to $3.13 billion.

• Liberty Bank of Arkansas, based in Jonesboro, remained at No. 5 but improved its deposits by 6.8 percent — an additional $136.8 million that brought its total to $2.14 billion and improved its statewide market share to 4 percent.

• Centennial Bank moved up one spot to No. 6, despite increasing its deposits by only 1.4 percent, to $1.76 billion, and actually losing a bit of market share. The acquisitive Conway bank saw its out-of-state deposits improve by $360 million, presumably attributable to the acquisition in February of 17 branches in Florida and Alabama from Vision Bank of Panama City, Fla.

• Centennial’s move up in the rankings came at the expense of BankcorpSouth Bank of Tupelo, Miss., which dropped to No. 7 after its deposits slumped by $121 million. Its Arkansas deposits on June 30 totaled just less than $1.74 billion

• Bank of the Ozarks, headquartered in Little Rock, remained at No. 8 despite losing deposits ($28.4 million) and market share. BOZ’s in-state deposits totaled $1.59 billion. Bank of the Ozarks made two major acquisitions in Georgia just weeks before the deposit snapshot in 2011, and typical post-acquisition deposit runoff was evident in its out-of-state deposit: down more than $330 million.

• Simmons First National Bank of Pine Bluff, the flagship charter of publicly traded Simmons First National Corp., remained at No. 9 when ranked by total deposits. Its Arkansas deposits were essentially flat at $1.32 billion.

• IberiaBank of Lafayette, La., moved into the No. 10 spot with total Arkansas deposits of $983.9 million, an improvement of less than 1 percent from last year. IberiaBank took the spot from Metropolitan National Bank of Little Rock, which saw its deposits decline by $121 million, or 11.9 percent.

• Metropolitan fell to No. 12 in statewide deposits with just less than $892 million, its first dip below $1 billion in the summary of deposits since 2005.