Atlanta’s SunTrust to merge with BB&T, shift HQ to Charlotte (Boston: live, eat)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Glad I got out when I did. SunTrust actually had the most genuine people of all of the companies I worked for, but this abomination really impacted some good people.
Yeah, its very understandable that many people see this as an abomination.
But an Atlanta-based bank like SunTrust being purchased by and merged into a North Carolina-based bank like BB&T really should come as no surprise to anyone in metro Atlanta.
That is because major Atlanta banks have been getting swallowed by larger banks (almost always by larger banks based in the city of Charlotte and/or in the state of North Carolina) for almost 35 years now.
SunTrust is at least the 5th major Atlanta-based bank to be swallowed up by either a Charlotte-based or Charlotte-destined bank over that roughly 35-year period.
I guess that looking back, what should come as a surprise is that an Atlanta-based bank like SunTrust held out for so long before finally being swallowed up by a North Carolina-based bank (BB&T) with plans to move the headquarters of the combined bank to none other than Charlotte.
Yeah, its very understandable that many people see this as an abomination.
But an Atlanta-based bank like SunTrust being purchased by and merged into a North Carolina-based bank like BB&T really should come as no surprise to anyone in metro Atlanta.
That is because major Atlanta banks have been getting swallowed by larger banks (almost always by larger banks based in the city of Charlotte and/or in the state of North Carolina) for almost 35 years now.
SunTrust is at least the 5th major Atlanta-based bank to be swallowed up by either a Charlotte-based or Charlotte-destined bank over that roughly 35-year period.
I guess that looking back, what should come as a surprise is that an Atlanta-based bank like SunTrust held out for so long before finally being swallowed up by a North Carolina-based bank (BB&T) with plans to move the headquarters of the combined bank to none other than Charlotte.
Note that while Retail Banking is moving to Charlotte Commercial/Wholesale is staying here. Still will be a net loss.
One man, Hugh McColl is responsible for the interstate bank takeover craze and Charlotte now having a skyline of a metro 3 to 4 times bigger than Charlotte's actual size of about 2.8 million people.
Bank of America today is really NCNB, North Carolina National Bank, who immediately started taking over Florida banks when banks were first given the ability to cross state lines in the 80s. NCNB channel letter signs were mounted onto banks all over Florida before it became NationsBank for a while.
The Charlotte tower with the Wurlitzer Radio top (which I am so tired of & would vote to demolish) was First Union's Has
I'm not sure if First Union became part of BofA or Wachovia, the other Winston-Salem based bank that went belly up and got bought by Wells Fargo.
Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank is the nation's 6th largest (until Truist) and operate in 18 states and has a few locations in metro Atlanta despite another small bank here with the exact same name that I've seen in Roswell.
One man, Hugh McColl is responsible for the interstate bank takeover craze and Charlotte now having a skyline of a metro 3 to 4 times bigger than Charlotte's actual size of about 2.8 million people.
Bank of America today is really NCNB, North Carolina National Bank, who immediately started taking over Florida banks when banks were first given the ability to cross state lines in the 80s. NCNB channel letter signs were mounted onto banks all over Florida before it became NationsBank for a while.
The Charlotte tower with the Wurlitzer Radio top (which I am so tired of & would vote to demolish) was First Union's Has
I'm not sure if First Union became part of BofA or Wachovia, the other Winston-Salem based bank that went belly up and got bought by Wells Fargo.
Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank is the nation's 6th largest (until Truist) and operate in 18 states and has a few locations in metro Atlanta despite another small bank here with the exact same name that I've seen in Roswell.
First Union acquired Wachovia in 2001 and took on the Wachovia name before going belly-up during the 2008 Financial Crisis and being acquired by Wells Fargo before the end of the 2008 calendar year.
In a bit of irony, the 2001 acquisition of Wachovia by First Union reportedly actually came as a shock to many industry watchers who expected Wachovia to be acquired by Atlanta-based SunTrust, who responded to the news of First Union's announced acquisition of Wachovia by attempting its own hostile takeover of Wachovia.
SunTrust's hostile takeover attempt of Wachovia was rejected by Wachovia's board of directors, who favored a merger with First Union. But SunTrust continued its hostile takeover attempt of Wachovia, leading to a bitter public battle between Atlanta-based SunTrust and Charlotte-based First Union throughout the summer of 2001 before the First Union-Wachovia merger was eventually finalized in early August 2001.
I guess that one can argue that the final seeds of the ultimate destruction of Atlanta's once seemingly dominant banking and finance industry were planted back more than 18 years ago in 2001 when Charlotte-based First Union appeared to snatch Winston-Salem based Wachovia right out from under Atlanta-based SunTrust who appeared to be poised to acquire Wachovia before it was successfully acquired by First Union.
Charlotte-based First Union's successful acquisition of Winston-Salem based Wachovia before Atlanta-based SunTrust could acquire it appears to have been the event that tipped the scales decidedly in favor of Charlotte in the battle between Atlanta and Charlotte for control and ultimate dominance over the banking and finance industry in Southeastern North America.
One might also be able to make the case that had Atlanta-based SunTrust been able to successfully acquire Winston-Salem based Wachovia back in 2001, that maybe, just maybe, Atlanta's hometown-based banking and finance industry might have been able to survive intact for at least several more years and we potentially might be reading about the acquisition of Winston-Salem based BB&T by a combined Atlanta-based SunTrust/Wachovia bank here at the end of 2019.
First Union acquired Wachovia in 2001 and took on the Wachovia name before going belly-up during the 2008 Financial Crisis and being acquired by Wells Fargo before the end of the 2008 calendar year.
In a bit of irony, the 2001 acquisition of Wachovia by First Union reportedly actually came as a shock to many industry watchers who expected Wachovia to be acquired by Atlanta-based SunTrust, who responded to the news of First Union's announced acquisition of Wachovia by attempting its own hostile takeover of Wachovia.
SunTrust's hostile takeover attempt of Wachovia was rejected by Wachovia's board of directors, who favored a merger with First Union. But SunTrust continued its hostile takeover attempt of Wachovia, leading to a bitter public battle between Atlanta-based SunTrust and Charlotte-based First Union throughout the summer of 2001 before the First Union-Wachovia merger was eventually finalized in early August 2001.
I guess that one can argue that the final seeds of the ultimate destruction of Atlanta's once seemingly dominant banking and finance industry were planted back more than 18 years ago in 2001 when Charlotte-based First Union appeared to snatch Winston-Salem based Wachovia right out from under Atlanta-based SunTrust who appeared to be poised to acquire Wachovia before it was successfully acquired by First Union.
Charlotte-based First Union's successful acquisition of Winston-Salem based Wachovia before Atlanta-based SunTrust could acquire it appears to have been the event that tipped the scales decidedly in favor of Charlotte in the battle between Atlanta and Charlotte for control and ultimate dominance over the banking and finance industry in Southeastern North America.
One might also be able to make the case that had Atlanta-based SunTrust been able to successfully acquire Winston-Salem based Wachovia back in 2001, that maybe, just maybe, Atlanta's hometown-based banking and finance industry might have been able to survive intact for at least several more years and we potentially might be reading about the acquisition of Winston-Salem based BB&T by a combined Atlanta-based SunTrust/Wachovia bank here at the end of 2019.
Synovous seems prepared to stay in GA. We’ll see if thats the case.
I'm with BB&T up North. First I'm hearing this "Trueist" new name. Though I did get notice my BB&T bank card. Is good at SunBank ATMs free.
Just the bank building that is currently BB&T I'm with. Had 4-takeover name changes this decade. I'm in a very small city too. The American way. Mergers, Takeovers and soon 4-5 Mega-Banks will control most.
But this loss of Atlanta and such a big deal is over-done. So Charlotte gained one ...... Atlanta has competition too now. It's time. It has reached a point not the cheapest and newer cities booming compete now. I'm waiting for Birmingham's turn to come.
Synovous seems prepared to stay in GA. We’ll see if thats the case.
Yeah, Synovus is the last remaining somewhat large-sized bank that is headquartered in Georgia.
But if a comparatively much larger Georgia-based major bank like Atlanta-based SunTrust can be acquired and have its headquarters moved to Charlotte, then a relatively smaller bank like Synovus unfortunately probably is definitely at risk of being bought out.
That is because Synovus possesses a very desirable geographical footprint that includes such fast-growing Southeastern markets like Florida, Atlanta, Nashville, and even South Carolina and overlaps with multiple megabanks... Multiple megabanks that are constantly looking to expand their operations in such a fast-growing part of the continent in the Southeast.
I'm with BB&T up North. First I'm hearing this "Trueist" new name. Though I did get notice my BB&T bank card. Is good at SunBank ATMs free.
Lol, I think that you probably meant to say SunTrust, but "SunBank" was actually the exact name of the Orlando, Florida-based bank that formed the bank that we know (or knew) as SunTrust during a merger with Atlanta-based Trust Company of Georgia in 1985.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DavePa
But this loss of Atlanta and such a big deal is over-done. So Charlotte gained one ...... Atlanta has competition too now. It's time. It has reached a point not the cheapest and newer cities booming compete now. I'm waiting for Birmingham's turn to come.
I cannot say that the big deal that many onlookers (especially many longtime metro Atlanta residents) are making about Winston-Salem based BB&T's acquisition of Atlanta-based SunTrust and the movement of the combined bank's (Truist) headquarters to Charlotte can be overstated.
That is because the merger of Winston-Salem based BB&T and Atlanta-based SunTrust into Charlotte-based Truist is about the 6th major bank headquarters that Atlanta and Georgia have lost to Charlotte and North Carolina over the last 34-35 years or so.
Atlanta began the decade of the 1980's being widely recognized as the banking and financial capital of the Southeast. Four decades later, the center of the Southeastern financial industry universe has totally and completely shifted from and out of Atlanta, Georgia to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The merger of BB&T and Atlanta-based SunTrust into Charlotte-based Truist pretty much finalizes and completes the nearly four-decade long shift of the center of the Southeastern banking/finance universe from Atlanta to Charlotte.
… Which is something that admittedly has been pretty humbling (to say the least) for an otherwise extremely aspirational and ascendant Atlanta business world.
Of course, Atlanta is large and diversified and vibrant enough to survive and even thrive after losing the last of its major bank headquarters to Charlotte.
But there still just is no denying that Charlotte has eaten Atlanta alive in the realm of banking and finance over the last 3-4 decades.
It is just something that is glaring for a city/metro that is as large and as dominant as Atlanta to have lost total and complete control of its entire banking and finance apparatus to a Charlotte metro that is less than half its size... But then I guess that 'all is fair in love and war.'
Banking has shifted to Charlotte while FinTech and Payments have definitely shifted to Atlanta.
70% of electronic payments in the US go through Georgia.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm in a very small city too. The American way. Mergers, Takeovers and soon 4-5 Mega-Banks will control most. 
