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This is dumb on my part, but for some reason I thought BB&T was headquartered in Raleigh until this thread. I guess that's okay because I'm learning from this forum quite often.
I don't know why I was thinking that but were they based in Raleigh at some point?
No, BB&T was never headquartered in Raleigh. They were started in, and until about 20-25 years ago, headquartered in, Wilson. At that time, BB&T merged with Southern National Bank, which was in the process of moving its headquarters from Lumberton to Winston-Salem. Since that move was already happening, and Wilson was too small for the hq of the new bank, the decision was made to move to W-S.
This is dumb on my part, but for some reason I thought BB&T was headquartered in Raleigh until this thread. I guess that's okay because I'm learning from this forum quite often.
I don't know why I was thinking that but were they based in Raleigh at some point?
It was founded in Wilson, 50 miles east of Raleigh. And I think the insurance group, which was rebranded as McGriff Insurance Services a year ago, might indeed be HQ'ed in Raleigh.
As I understand it, BB&T HQ didn't come to Winston until the mid-90s. Southern National Bank (based in Lumberton) bought Winston-based First Federal in '93, and while the HQ technically stayed in Lumberton, W-S had office space ready to go and landed most of the jobs. Then BB&T and SNB merged (a "merger of equals") and Winston snagged the HQ.
So in a way, I guess it's "live by the sword, die by the sword." Unlike Wachovia, BB&T wasn't a home-grown brand in Winston, and wouldn't have ended up here without mergers and relocations.
ETA: I didn't see BC1960's post before I hit enter, so forgive the redundancies.
It's really too bad Winston never had their own version of Hugh McColl or Ed Crutchfield. These two banking CEOs are responsible for Charlotte's evolution into a banking and corporate powerhouse. Before federal law was changed to allow interstate banking, NBNC and First Union were snapping up smaller banks in the state (as was Wachovia I believe). After interstate banking was allowed, both CEOs went on an acquisition frenzy on behalf of their respective banks, turning them into major national banks and raising the national corporate profile of Charlotte as a result. That gave Charlotte the workforce, infrastructure, etc to support banking on such a big scale and of course, that leads to growth, development, and the addition of amenities that people in growing cities want. For whatever reason, Winston's major banks, BB&T (which, to be fair, didn't quite have the same standing as a completely homegrown company) and Wachovia especially, decided on a more conservative, less aggressive path which lead to First Union's acquisition of the smaller Wachovia. So now fast-forward 30 some years later and BB&T decides to make a high profile acquisition of SunTrust--but because Charlotte got to the party first, it makes for a much more suitable location for the new bank's HQs and thus this acquisition doesn't result in a bigger Winston-based BB&T but the loss of the BB&T HQ entirely. It's like the passage of time resulted in the acquisition backfiring for Winston. One bank gets acquired and that's a HQ lost, the other does the acquiring and the HQ still gets lost. That's gotta sting.
IMO that's pretty much a guarantee. I haven't dealt much with BB&T, but now they are just another megabank as far as I'm concerned. As my job, we have a small relationship with BB&T and that will be ending and we'll go with a smaller bank. But as I said previously, at least the HQ will be in Charlotte so I'm happy for CLT.
Smaller, community banks are getting harder and harder to find. There are only a select few (for now), such as Piedmont Federal and a few others like that. Niche credit unions seem to be a little more stable from being gobbled up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gsoboi78
I think the insurance division of BB&T is based in Raleigh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BC1960
No, BB&T was never headquartered in Raleigh. They were started in, and until about 20-25 years ago, headquartered in, Wilson. At that time, BB&T merged with Southern National Bank, which was in the process of moving its headquarters from Lumberton to Winston-Salem. Since that move was already happening, and Wilson was too small for the hq of the new bank, the decision was made to move to W-S.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UnderTheLiveOaks
It was founded in Wilson, 50 miles east of Raleigh. And I think the insurance group, which was rebranded as McGriff Insurance Services a year ago, might indeed be HQ'ed in Raleigh.
As I understand it, BB&T HQ didn't come to Winston until the mid-90s. Southern National Bank (based in Lumberton) bought Winston-based First Federal in '93, and while the HQ technically stayed in Lumberton, W-S had office space ready to go and landed most of the jobs. Then BB&T and SNB merged (a "merger of equals") and Winston snagged the HQ.
So in a way, I guess it's "live by the sword, die by the sword." Unlike Wachovia, BB&T wasn't a home-grown brand in Winston, and wouldn't have ended up here without mergers and relocations.
ETA: I didn't see BC1960's post before I hit enter, so forgive the redundancies.
I hope it doesn't affect Winston-Salem too negatively, but I'm concerned it will. Many BB&T branches are within walking distance to Sun Trust branches, so I'm sure many are going to close and no telling how many will lose jobs.
And the new name is: Truist Financial Maybe it will grow on me.
Ugh, I saw that yesterday and it seriously made me scratch my head. One article I read says "The banks said they came up with Truist after a "rigorous, data-driven" process run by consulting firm Interbrand that prioritized input from employees and clients."
LOL. Typical big bank environment--they paid a consultant thousands to come up with this name, and no one had the balls to say "WTF?" because brown-nosing their superiors tops their list of job qualifications. That's the way things work in banking. I can see it now...all of them sitting around a board room table, the new name is unveiled, and through suppressed looks of confusion and forced smiles on their faces, everyone says "That's great!" while they pat themselves on the back for wasting thousands of dollars.
A "rigorous, data-driven process"? Haha, that is corporate-speak at its finest, folks.
Accenture
Xerox
Kodak
Wachovia
Pantone
Truist
Sony
Google
Ikea
Verizon
Nokia
^ None of these words really mean anything to people but after enough advertising, marketing, and delivering quality products we all think "Kodak" or "Verizon" is a word and have associations with these made up terms towards the brand.
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Maybe it will grow on me.
