The pending merger of two northeast Arkansas lenders will create the state’s 35th-largest bank, with total assets of $539 million.
The $128.6 million-asset Piggott State Bank will retain its name and become a division of the $410.4 million-asset Farmers Bank & Trust in Blytheville.
Both financial institutions are owned by Gaylon Lawrence Jr. of Nashville, Tennessee. All told, he owns banks in three states with combined total assets of nearly $5 billion.
The Lawrence family’s entry into banking came through Piggott State Bank. Gaylon Lawrence Sr. bought a controlling interest in the bank about 40 years ago on his way to establishing one of the largest family farm enterprises in the nation: the Lawrence Group.
The elder Lawrence, who died in 2012, graduated from Piggott High School in 1951 and grew up in nearby Pollard.
The pending consolidation of Piggott State and Farmers Bank & Trust follows the July merger of two Tennessee banks he owns.
The $516 million-asset Fourth Capital Bank of Nashville is now part of the $1 billion-asset Volunteer State Bank of Portland. In Tennessee, Lawrence also owns the $1.7 billion-asset F&M Bank of Clarksville.
His holdings include a trio of lenders in the Show-Me State: the $259 million-asset First Missouri State Bank in Poplar Bluff, the $212 million-asset First Missouri State Bank of Cape County in Cape Girardeau, and the $202 million-asset First Missouri Bank of SEMO in Kennett.
Durham Office
Little Rock’s Bank OZK is working on its 24th full-service location in North Carolina. The $36.8 billion-asset lender intends to set up shop at 4003 N. Roxboro Road in Durham.
The largest stakeholder in the $12.5 billion-deposit market is Pacific Western Bank of Beverly Hills. The California lender’s lone North Carolina office is the repository of $5.7 billion in deposits, 45.91% of Durham’s total.
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