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Wherever community bankers were when they heard First Union's offer to buy Wachovia (to be followed by a SunTrust Banks bid), Ron Duffey is confident of their reaction. The prospect of a mega-bank (yet another!) down the street likely didn't bring many sighs and furrowed brows. Instead, it was hard for community bankers to surpress a grin. Either way, this would be one huge competitor.
"They had a little gleam in their eye and a smile on their face," says Duffey, founder and CEO of Peachtree National Bank. "They know they're going to benefit from it."
Community bankers usually get the fallout that comes with mega-mergers: new deposits from unhappy customers who don't want to get buried beneath yet another layer of bank bureaucracy, rebel at changing their checks again or grumble at the prospect of a local branch closing.
"Whether it's accurate or not, the perception of the general public will be that the customer will not be treated as well after the merger," Duffey says.
The idea that community bankers actually welcome mergers by regional banks defies conventional wisdom. Speculation about the impending death of community banks buzzes with every big bank deal - like rumors of the demise of books, magazines and newspapers with every development in communication technology. The deaths of both are grossly exaggerated. Mark Twain would have understood.
Ronnie Austin, president and CEO of the holding company for Community Trust Bank in Hiram, remembers being told 30 years ago to get out of community banking because it was a thing of the past.
"Community banks are thriving," says Austin, who will soon open another community bank. "There arc probably more community bank charter applications in Georgia than ever."
While the year 2000 may not have been a record-setting year for new banks, the number of state-chartered banks that opened (11) was almost twice that of the previous two years, bringing the number of statechartered banks and trust companies to a total of 275, joining more than 40 national banks in the state.
Community banks are a presence in almost every county in
Georgia. And no doubt that presence will grow. While the overall number of banks across the country has dropped in the last decade, "greater consolidation in the...