[1] During the 2007–2008 financial crisis, the bank declined funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

[9] In April 2018, the bank acquired Bear State Financial, with 42 branches and $2.2 billion in assets.

[10] In June 2010, Blanche Lincoln, a U.S. senator from Arkansas, was accused of pushing for an increase to an asset threshold in a financial regulation bill to benefit Arvest.

[11][12] In March 2014, Dennis Smiley, the CEO of the Benton County Arvest Bank, resigned as he was being investigated by the FBI for loan fraud.

[13] In 2016, he was sentenced to 97 months for obtaining loans wrongfully, coercing subordinates and forging family members' signatures.