Bank OZK

What does Bank OZK own?

Bank OZK owns its banking subsidiary and specialized lending groups including the Real Estate Specialties Group, Corporate and Institutional Banking, Indirect Lending, OZK Labs, and Bank OZK Trust, all under the unified Bank OZK brand.

Is Bank OZK publicly traded?

Yes. Bank OZK trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker OZK. It has been publicly held for decades and is an S&P MidCap 400 component.

Who founded Bank OZK?

The original bank was founded in 1903 in Ozark, Arkansas as a community institution. George Gleason acquired it in 1979 and has led it as chairman and CEO for more than four decades, shaping its modern form.

Where is Bank OZK headquartered?

Bank OZK is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, at 18000 Cantrell Road. It maintains specialized operations in Dallas, Houston, Alpharetta, St. Petersburg, and Ozark, Arkansas.

How many brands does Bank OZK own?

The company operates under the single Bank OZK brand, with its specialized lending groups carrying the OZK identity rather than separate brand names.

Who owns Bank OZK?

Bank OZK is owned by public shareholders. George Gleason is the largest individual shareholder and has led the company since 1979. Institutional investors including Vanguard and BlackRock hold the largest aggregate positions.

What is Bank OZK known for?

The bank is known for elite profitability and for being one of the nation's leading commercial real estate and construction lenders despite its mid-size retail footprint, a specialization that produces top-tier returns and concentration risk.

The bank was founded in 1903 in Ozark, Arkansas as the Bank of Ozark, a conventional community institution serving the Arkansas River Valley. It operated locally for most of the twentieth century.

George Gleason transformed it. A lawyer at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, he led an investor group that acquired the bank in 1979 when he was 25, taking over as chairman and CEO. The bank renamed itself Bank of the Ozarks in 1999 as it expanded beyond its home county, and it grew through the 1990s and 2000s as a disciplined regional acquirer.

The 2008 financial crisis created its biggest expansion opportunity. Bank of the Ozarks became one of the country's most active acquirers of failed banks, completing roughly a dozen FDIC-assisted acquisitions between 2010 and 2016 across Georgia, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and elsewhere. These deals delivered assets at a discount with FDIC loss-sharing, driving outsized growth with limited credit risk.

In parallel the bank built the Real Estate Specialties Group in Dallas, which grew into one of the nation's premier construction and commercial real estate lenders, financing some of the country's largest development projects. The bank adopted the name Bank OZK in 2018 as the franchise became fully national. It has produced record net interest income for five consecutive years through 2025 and record diluted earnings per share each year for the past three years.

The bank's primary controversy is its commercial real estate concentration. In September 2024, short seller Culper Research published a report alleging concentrated exposure to distressed New York office and condominium loans, causing a sharp stock decline. The bank disputed the characterization and subsequent results showed stable credit metrics, but the episode exposed persistent investor questions about the size of its construction book.

RESG lending has also been drawn into developer defaults and high-profile project foreclosures, normal events in CRE cycles that attract outsized attention given the bank's profile in trophy real estate. No major regulatory enforcement action has been taken against the bank in recent years.