They also credit the company's success to the personality and leadership of Hugh L. McColl, Jr. McColl's style, that of a southern-born and bred ex-Marine, contrasts sharply with that of most members of the banking community, and has contributed to NationsBank's image as one of the mavericks of the banking world.
The merger created the fourth-largest banking company in the United States. Brown became the first chairman. The two companies entered the merger having both completed a decade of rapid growth that was typical of the banking industry in the s.
After expanding into South Carolina and Florida in the early to mids, Charlotte-based NCNB took an unprecedented leap forward through a unique expansion into Texas in In , this company merged with similarly sized Sovran Financial of Norfolk, Virginia. Sovran had banking offices throughout Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, as well as in Tennessee and Kentucky.
After these two companies merged, the resulting organization established dual headquarters in Atlanta and in Norfolk. NCNB traces its illustrious history back to the Commercial National Bank, which was organized by several prominent Charlotte citizens in A series of mergers with other North Carolina financial institutions in the s ultimately led to the creation of North Carolina National Bank on July 1, The bank continued to acquire smaller institutions, and by NCNB had grown to 91 offices in 27 North Carolina counties with deposits of more than one billion dollars.
Ten years later, it stood as the state's largest bank. Based in Winston-Salem, Wachovia had offices from the mountains to the coast and exercised considerable political clout in the capitol city of Raleigh.
Bankers at other institutions stood in envy of Wachovia. Many bankers thrived on the competition, and some, such as Addison Reese at American Commercial Bank--one of NCNB's predecessor institutions--in Charlotte, considered that competition the reason for going to work each morning.
At the time, Reese believed that North Carolina banking was poised for a change and nothing could stop him from meeting Wachovia's threats. North Carolina's banking laws were more liberal than in most states. They had been on the books since the early s, when a Wilmington, North Carolina, bank appealed to the state legislature for permission to open an office about ninety miles away in Fayetteville.
The legislature complied with the bank. Unlike in most states, the North Carolina legislature saw no reason to restrict branch banking during the intervening years. In retrospect, many people believe that it was the close competition with backyard rival Wachovia that spurred NCNB's rapid growth.
At the time, it became the first non-Florida bank to expand its retail services into the state. During this period of growth, North Carolina National Bank established several "firsts" in its industry. The company that would eventually become Sovran opened its doors in Richmond during that decade.
At the time, its customer base included Confederate Army commander Robert E. More than a century later, in , two major institutions--Virginia National Bankshares and First and Merchants--merged to form Sovran Financial Corporation. At the time, it was the largest banking merger in Virginia's state history. Sovran's management team decided to merge with D. National Bancorp, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in By November of , Sovran was moving west by merging with Commerce Union, a year-old bank holding company based in Nashville.
Commerce Union's business at the time spanned Tennessee and had a presence in Kentucky. The merger gave Sovran strongholds in both of those states. Around the time Sovran Bank's foundations were being laid, the Citizens Bank of Savannah, Georgia, opened its doors in the temperate coastal city on November 2, The resulting organization became the state's largest financial institution.
It began to spread rapidly across the state of Georgia. Citizens and Southern began opening offices in South Carolina in , but the company sold its operations there in when it anticipated federal rules preventing banks from owning branches in multiple states. That acquisition, along with the purchase of Landmark Banks of Florida in , helped Citizens and Southern doubled its size within eighteen months during the mids.
The banking environment, however, was in the midst of tremendous change. Large banks were continuing to consolidate. As a result, smaller banks were under constant pressure to find new ways to improve their efficiency and productivity and reduce their workforces.
In addition, the nation as a whole experienced a downturn in the real estate market--an area responsible for much of an average bank's business. Prior to reissuing his offer, McColl gathered with his advisors.
I don't know when. I don't know how. Cooley handled the job himself, and several weeks later, he handed McColl a profile of Brown as well as a profile of McColl himself, as seen by Brown. Cooley told his boss that the keys to Brown's relationships with people were honesty, sincerity, warmth, and friendliness.
To McColl's chagrin, however, each of those traits was opposite the characteristics that McColl portrayed to Brown. Johnston, Moira. Roller coaster: the Bank of America and the future of American banking. Comments are not published until reviewed by NCpedia editors at the State Library of NC , and the editors reserve the right to not publish any comment submitted that is considered inappropriate for this resource. NCpedia will not publish personal contact information in comments, questions, or responses.
If you would like a reply by email, note that some email servers, such as public school accounts, are blocked from accepting messages from outside email servers or domains. If you prefer not to leave an email address, check back at your NCpedia comment for a reply. Please allow one business day for replies from NCpedia. Skip to main content. Is anything in this article factually incorrect? Please submit a comment.
Printer-friendly page Bank of America by Julian M. Pleasants, References: Howard E. Covington Jr. Ellis, The Story of NationsBank Banks and banking. UNC Press. Pleasants, Julian M. Origin - location:.
0コメント