BANK ACQUIRED

ST. LOUIS - Boatmen's Bancshares, Inc., one of the nation's 40 biggest bank holding companies, announced plans Thursday to buy a small Oklahoma City-based bank for $32 million.

The deal for Founder's Bancorporation, Inc., which has assets of about $330 million, is the second foray into Oklahoma in the past two years for the St. Louis-based bank.

The acquisition is subject to federal regulatory approval.

In August of 1990, Boatmen's bought the nine branches and nearly $1 billion in assets of First National Bank of Oklahoma. The bank was renamed Boatmen's First National of Oklahoma.

Boatmen's will now have 14 branches and more than $1.2 billion in assets in the metropolitan Oklahoma City area.

Boatmen's has total assets of $17 billion and operates more than 200 locations in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee and Oklahoma.