The signs are up, the systems are updated, and the staffers have most­ly mastered the Bank of the Ozarks’ new name.   
 
The transition of the Arkan­sas-based bank to its new moniker, Bank OZK, has gone well, according to Ryan Tanner, the bank’s Wilming­ton market president.   
 
“We were official [as Bank OZK] as of July 16,” Tanner said. “It was almost a soft transition. We con­verted everything inside the bank-documents, mailings and so forth- and just recently, before  [Hurricane Florence], we were able to get the old Bank of the Ozarks signs down. We’re now Bank OZK on the exterior: we’re up and we’re lit.”   
 
Tanner calls the new name “dis­tinctive and bold. It may stick in your head and we like that. It stands out.”   
 
The name change, according to bank officials, was designed to free the bank from the limitations of a name tied to a specific geographic region.   
 
“Bank of the Ozarks’ presence and brand have evolved in recent de­cades from an Arkansas community bank into a much larger regional bank with national lending business­es,” the bank’s website states.     
 
The site also says that since going public in 1997, the bank’s total assets have grown from $307 million to $22.04 billion (as of March this year) and it has expanded to 254 offices in 10 states.  
 
Throughout its footprint, Bank OZK is investing a “huge amount of money” in increasing its technologi­cal capabilities to make it easy for its customers to bank digitally Tanner said, adding that the Wilmington branch is trying to diversify and pick up additional operating accounts.”