News in brief

Bank of Ozarks adds C1, is state's largest

Bank of the Ozarks became the largest bank based in Arkansas on Thursday, with the closing of its purchase of C1 Financial of St. Petersburg, Fla.

C1 Financial, the holding company of C1 Bank, had assets of $1.7 billion at the end of June. That, combined with Bank of the Ozarks' $16.2 billion, brings its total assets to $17.9 billion.

Fayetteville-based Arvest Bank, the largest bank in the state for years, had assets of of $16.4 billion at the end of March, but a spokesman for the bank said its assets for the second-quarter, which have not been released, will not exceed $17.9 billion.

On Wednesday, Little Rock-based Bank of the Ozarks closed on the purchase of Community & Southern Holdings of Atlanta. Community & Southern had $3.9 billion in assets.

Bank of the Ozarks has 177 offices in Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, New York and California.

-- David Smith

Hamburg bank theft earns 21-month term

A former branch manager at First National Bank of Crossett who admitted to taking money from the bank has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison on one count of bank fraud, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas said Thursday.

Melinda Gwin, 49, of Hamburg also has been ordered to repay more than $210,800 to the bank, the news release said. Gwin was employed at the bank's Hamburg branch between 2009 and 2015.

After an audit in August 2015 found that there was cash missing at the branch, Gwin told law enforcement officials that she had taken money from the bank vault, the news release said.

She told them that she had been doing it for about five years, taking cash in increments of $2,000 to $3,000, the news release said.

Gwin was indicted by a federal grand jury in September and pleaded guilty in December, the news release said.

-- Jessica Seaman

State index off 2.23 as markets retreat

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 2.23 to 336.87 Thursday.

Three index stocks advanced and 15 declined.

"U.S. stocks paused from the recent rally as the markets weighed a busy round of earnings and some mixed economic data," said John Blackwell, managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business on 07/22/2016

Upcoming Events