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The Banking Industry in SC


krazeeboi

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Sadly I doubt it - The Socialist Republic of Americhovia has SC behind it's currency curtain. I don't think any SC banks have the capitol to expand before being bought out or being run out of business. I think the 2 mega banks will always accept smaller local banks as long as they don't pose as competition. But a statewide bank truly would.

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True, SF will be the largest once the move is complete.

So does this mean that Carolina First will be supplanted by SF? Or would their assets be counted separately, meaning SF would have 6.3 billion?

South Financial Group has almost 15 billion in assets and is headquartered in Greenville. It operates two banking divisions that each contribute to the overall asset base 1. Carolina First with branches in South and North Carolina 2. Mercantile Bank with branches in Florida.

http://ir.thesouthgroup.com/phoenix.zhtml?...p;p=irol-IRHome

SFG would currently be considered to be larger than statewide and be considered regional. With it's growth plan, it's looking to grow in regional importance and targeting super-regional status. Smart concept too, operating as "super community banks".....this allowed SFG to grow from one office in the mid 80's to one of the top 50 in the U.S. today (mainly flew under the radar of most larger banking companies, though with it's current size, it's no longer under the radar as far as an acquisition target). It's growth plan is to remain independent and it's CEO, Mack Whittle, has a true love of Greenville (I think he bleeds green). Nice to see a homegrown bank in the top 50 nationally. Something all of SC can be proud of. :thumbsup:

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South Carolina National Bank (SCNB) used to be a massive SC bank. It covered the entire state & even in a minor market like Rock Hill (at the time at least) they had a large downtown office building. It was sad to see the bank go when NCNB bought it, which I think occured before they bought C&S becoming Nations Bank. Also there was another bank that was big - SC Federal, they may have been bought out by First Union or Wachovia (of course the same thing now). The only other major bank serving SC at the time was the out of state C&S.

Correction, teshadoh, SC National was bought out by Wachovia years ago, not NCNB. I was with SCN, and was not happy at all to then be with a N.C. bank! NCNB did buy out C&S, and also Bankers Trust, which had a big presence in downtown Columbia (the current Wilbur Smith building.)

I wish SunTrust, based in Ga. and much like the old C&S, would buy out BB&T or some other N.C. bank to become a player in S.C. I'm tired of N.C. banks steamrolling all over the place. Maybe BOA will buy out Watch-over-ya--that would be sweet to have only one N.C. bank left, lol.

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South Financial Group has almost 15 billion in assets and is headquartered in Greenville. It operates two banking divisions that each contribute to the overall asset base 1. Carolina First with branches in South and North Carolina 2. Mercantile Bank with branches in Florida.

http://ir.thesouthgroup.com/phoenix.zhtml?...p;p=irol-IRHome

SFG would currently be considered to be larger than statewide and be considered regional. With it's growth plan, it's looking to grow in regional importance and targeting super-regional status. Smart concept too, operating as "super community banks".....this allowed SFG to grow from one office in the mid 80's to one of the top 50 in the U.S. today (mainly flew under the radar of most larger banking companies, though with it's current size, it's no longer under the radar as far as an acquisition target). It's growth plan is to remain independent and it's CEO, Mack Whittle, has a true love of Greenville (I think he bleeds green). Nice to see a homegrown bank in the top 50 nationally. Something all of SC can be proud of. :thumbsup:

So then to answer my question, SFG will show up on the FDIC list instead of Carolina First next year. What I don't understand then, is why they had to move from Florida if they were alread HQ'ed in Greenville? Was this just a consolidation effort after the Florida bank was purchased?

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So then to answer my question, SFG will show up on the FDIC list instead of Carolina First next year. What I don't understand then, is why they had to move from Florida if they were alread HQ'ed in Greenville? Was this just a consolidation effort after the Florida bank was purchased?

SFG didn't move "from" Florida. They have been based here from day one of the company. They looked at Florida for their headquarters, which would have been a loss for SC (this was most probably talk to get the tax break they received here).

What you are looking at under FDIC is commercial banks. SFG Group is the parent (holding company), so you have to include all assets from it's multiple commercial banks. Here is part of the page from the FDIC site:

Bank Holding Company Detail

SOUTH FINANCIAL GROUP, THE

Greenville, SC

2 records were found matching your selection criteria

Multibank and One Bank HCs, Having BHC ID #1141599

Sorted by Total Deposits($000)

Information as of December 31, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BHC ID Bank Holding Company Name City State Class Combined Total Domestic Deposits ($000) * Combined Total Assets ($000) *

1141599 SOUTH FINANCIAL GROUP, THE Greenville SC HC 9,548,836 14,351,181

Bank and thrift subsidiaries of the bank holding company: Cert Institution Name City County State Class Total Domestic Deposits ($000) Total Assets ($000)

27515 Mercantile Bank Orlando Orange FL NM 3,722,087 5,639,528

26849 Carolina First Bank Greenville Greenville SC NM 5,826,749 8,711,653

So what we have is a bank that started with one branch in Greenville in the mid 80's, grew statewide, acquired banks in other states, formed a bank holding company and is now in the top 50 banks in the US. Not too shabby.

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I wish SunTrust, based in Ga. and much like the old C&S, would buy out BB&T or some other N.C. bank to become a player in S.C. I'm tired of N.C. banks steamrolling all over the place. Maybe BOA will buy out Watch-over-ya--that would be sweet to have only one N.C. bank left, lol.

I can't hate on NC; they were smart about it by loosening their banking laws. That only made it that much easier for Hugh McColl to turn BOA into the powerhouse that it is today. Maybe if SC had that kind of foresight, McColl might have stayed in his home state and Carolina First or First Citizens would have that kind of prestige today.

And I think Wachovia is protected from a buyout due to being over a certain amount in assets, but I'm not sure.

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SFG didn't move "from" Florida. They have been based here from day one of the company. They looked at Florida for their headquarters, which would have been a loss for SC (this was most probably talk to get the tax break they received here).

What you are looking at under FDIC is commercial banks. SFG Group is the parent (holding company), so you have to include all assets from it's multiple commercial banks. Here is part of the page from the FDIC site:

Ok, so they are indeed consolidating by moving their Florida HQ operations to Greenville. You could have saved a lot of time by saying that to start with.

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Ok, so they are indeed consolidating by moving their Florida HQ operations to Greenville. You could have saved a lot of time by saying that to start with.

Well not exactly....but sure. We'll go with it. The above wasn't the original question. :)

They will still continue to run Mercantile Bank as a division, up until some unknown point when they decide to consolidate all banking divisions under one corporate "name". Seeing as their strategy is clusters of "super community banks" it's anybodies guess when or if they will do this. The name a bank runs under and the assets of a bank holding company to determine size have nothing to do with each other.

The new campus is simply for the current and future growth. They are busting at the seams in Poinsett Plaza.

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...

I wish SunTrust, based in Ga. and much like the old C&S, would buy out BB&T or some other N.C. bank to become a player in S.C. I'm tired of N.C. banks steamrolling all over the place. Maybe BOA will buy out Watch-over-ya--that would be sweet to have only one N.C. bank left, lol.

SunTrust is huge in the Upstate. They have a large regional headquarters in downtown Greenville and numerous branches in all the surrounding cities and towns.

Palmetto Bank is currently moving its headquarters to downtown Greenville as well. I hope to see it grow rapidly in coming years, as I have found it to be a very good bank for loans. Their customer service is second to none, in my opinion, and they are located in nearly every town in the Greenville area at least. :shades:

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As a side note i would start paying extra attention on I-85 when you go by the South Financial site. It is bound to start growing anytime now once rough grade work is done.

I can't wait! Banking is going to get more exposure in South Carolina soon! :thumbsup:

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  • 1 year later...

So with all of the mess going on in the banking industry as of late, anyone care to give some updated thoughts here?

Carolina First, which is the largest bank in South Carolina seems to be doing fairly well and are still moving forward on their new corporate headquarters in Greenville. :)

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Carolina First, which is the largest bank in South Carolina seems to be doing fairly well and are still moving forward on their new corporate headquarters in Greenville. :)

Wachovia's still moving forward on its new headquarters tower and arts complex here in Charlotte also. I'm not being facetious, but I don't think new construction really tells us anything at this point.

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I saw an article in the Herald-Journal the other day after Citi bought Wachovia, that Citi would have had the largest marketshare in SC. Since Wachovia is now being purchased by Wells Fargo, this still means that our largest bank in terms of marketshare will be headquartered outside of the Carolinas.

Bank - Marketshare (as of June 30, 2007)

Wachovia/WellsFargo - 18% (NC/CA)

BofA - 11% (NC)

BB&T - 10% (NC)

Carolina First - 8% (SC)

First Citizens - 7 % (SC)

NBSC - 6% (SC)

(all others are under 5%)

Source: FDIC

Obviously being located next to NC and Charlotte, we're going to share the limelight with them, but what do you think about our state's largest bank presence being out of California? Particularly as the successor of the former SCNB. Also, what do you think about the top 3 banks in the state being out of state banks? Does it even matter?

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I think it has the potential to mean big things for the Carolinas. For the last few years Californians have been reading real estate articles from the LA Times and such about what a great investment the Carolinas are for real estate. I just hope they don't blow us up into a market with fake prices that crash a few years down the road.

My partner just chimed in. He said we in the Carolinas, and especially Charlotte, had better hope Citi-Group's law suit against Wells Fargo doesn't hold up, because, he said, if Citi wins, they will think nothing of wiping out the banking workforce in Charolotte to replenish Wall Street jobs, whereas Wells Fargo would more likely want to keep a large banking workforce in the Carolinas, where they currently have no presence.

Attached is an article about the big blow Charlotte has already taken, regardless of which bank takes over Wachovia in the end.

http://www.thestate.com/local/story/545100.html

And I might add that Charlotte's unemployment rate is already at 7%, not counting any job losses that occur from the takeover. That's a higher percentage than any of SC's big three.

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Actually Wells Fargo has a 1,600 employee loan processing center in York county.

True, but that's not a retail banking presence. The Carolinas are a blank slate for Wells Fargo in this regard. Hopefully, that will soften the blow a bit if Wells Fargo is the one that comes out on top here. But I don't want to get into all of that in this thread.

I wasn't too surprised to see BB&T at #3 on the list. They really do seem to have a substantial SC presence. Seems as though they would have great growth potential going forward since they didn't really get involved in the mortgage mess.

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I really would have expected First Citizens to have been 3rd. They have the largest presence in the state in terms of physical structures, so I just assumed they had a larger deposit base.

Does anyone know if Wachovia kept all of the SCNB buildings when they merged?

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^Wachovia came close to being shutdown twice in the last week and that might still be its fate. If that were to happen, then up until last week any money that someone had that exceeded the $100K FDIC insurance would be lost. There are a lot of people and businesses that are in this situation and that was a big part of the reason that people were taking their money out of Wachovia. People with the proceeds from a house sale, roll overs from retirement plans, life savings, etc all stood to lose a great deal by this mess.

Community banks, and even better, credit unions, are great alternatives.

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