Bank of the Ozarks No. 1 for failed-bank bids

Bank of the Ozarks is the No. 1 submitter of bids for failed banks, according to a report by SNL Financial.

The Little Rock, Ark.-based bank, which opened its first full-service branch in Charlotte in March, submitted 61 disclosed bids to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from Jan. 1, 2009, to April 26, according to the SNL findings released Thursday.

But only seven of the bank's submissions were winning bids.

Also, Bank of the Ozarks' 61 bids were almost double the number of submissions by the No. 2 bidder, Conway, Ark.-based Centennial Bank, which bid on 35 failed banks.

Raleigh-based First-Citizens Bank also made the list, coming in at No. 7 with 17 bids on failed banks, leading to six acquisitions.

Among the failed banks Bank of the Ozark has acquired: Bluffton, S.C.-based Woodlands Bank, which Bank of the Ozarks took over in 2010.

Bank of the Ozarks has had a loan-production office in Charlotte since 2001, but it didn't have a full-service branch in the city until March, when it opened a two-story, 11,050-square-foot branch at 4200 Park Road. It's only other North Carolina branch is in Wilmington, a market it entered when it acquired Woodlands Bank.

Bank of the Ozarks also plans to open a one-story branch in Cornelius at 19811 W. Catawba Ave. Bank of the Ozarks submitted bids for 19 of the 51 failed-bank deals in 2012.