How Bank OZK Has Continued to Lend Through a Pandemic

Bank OZK’s conservative lending practices and extreme focus on detail in underwriting, structuring and closing loans has allowed us to continue lending during the pandemic, just as we did during the Great Recession. Our successful lending principles are the subject of a January 11 cover story in the Dallas Business Journal, “How Bank OZK has continued to lend through a pandemic.”

“While COVID-19 has caused some commercial lenders to pump the brakes on lending to new construction projects, Little Rock-based Bank OZK hasn’t taken a day off through the pandemic,” the article begins.

“Our asset management is probably one of the best in the industry, if not the best. Being as detailed as we are helps us to have much better intel on these projects than a lot of our competitors. As a result, we’ve never gotten to the end of a project and not had money left in the budget to finish it,” said George Gleason, Chairman and CEO.

Our Real Estate Specialties Group provides senior-secured financing on marquee commercial real estate construction projects throughout the nation. We’re proud to be known in the industry as a preeminent, market-leading construction lender changing skylines across the United States.

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