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John Alton Williams comes on as a hard charger as soon as you meet him. Talk to him for just two or three minutes, and you realize how naturally that drive comes to him.
At 18, Williams was taking mortgage applications for United Federal Savings & Loan in Rocky Mount. At 23, he made vice president. At 27 he was president, believed to be the youngest person ever in the nation to head an S&L without inheriting the job. In 1982, at 29, he became chief executive officer.
In the two years he has held the undivided leadership of the institution, the bottom line has gone from an after-tax loss of $3.9 million in 1982 to a profit of $2.4 million in 1984. Lending volume has grown from $17 million to nearly $125 million. He expects to top $150 million this year. Stockholders' equity has grown from $3.2 million in 1983 to more than $7 million. Stock prices have climbed from between $2 and $3 to between $12 and $13 -- after a 2-for-1 stock split in November 1984. United is now one of the most profitable S&Ls in North Carolina in terms of return.
Williams has benefitted handsomely from the S&L's turnaround. He owns 80,000 of United's 720,000 shares, which at $12 a share would be worth $960,000.
Williams took over United just as deregulation was freeing thrift institutions from the cycle of taking in savings in passbook accounts and lending the money out in home mortgages. He charged aggressively into the secondary mortgage market, packaging mortgages and selling them to brokerage houses. For this, United picks up an initial discount fee of 1 to 1.5 percent, plus an annual service fee of 3/8 to 3/4 percent from the purchasers of the mortgages.
Williams also converted United to a full-service retail banking operation and reined in its geographic range. He closed or sold offices in Louisburg and Greensboro and limited operations in Charlotte and Wilmington to mortgages. Today, United has offices in Rocky Mount, Raleigh, Cary and Pinetops and 11 mortgage correspondent offices with other financial institutions which initiate mortgages for United. It actually now services more mortgages for others than it holds itself -- $225 million vs. $160 million.
"When I took...