Larry Miller chuckled when asked aboutthe number of new banks that have opened in Greenville in the lastfew months.
“You don’t have enough to space towrite about them,” he said.
Miller is the chief executive officerof Independence Bank, part of a wave of independent bankers trying tocarve out a piece of the Upstate financial market.
It is one of four banks to get chartersin South Carolina’s Upstate in the last 14 months, according to theFederal Deposit Insurance Corp. CommunitySouth, Pinnacle andBankGreenville are the other three.
All four share common threads. Theirprincipals all have more than 20 years experience working forregional and national banks stationed in Greenville. They pridethemselves on being locally-owned banks. They are doing the littlethings, such as waiving ATM fees for using foreign bank machines, toset themselves apart.
And they are focusing on serving thesmall business person’s needs.
“We are all doing the same thing in away,” said David Barnett, president of Pinnacle Bank, which openedits first offices on Pleasantburg Drive in February.
The reason for this boom inlocally-owned banks is twofold. Mergers of regional and nationalbanks in the last few years have created a hole in the Upstatebanking market, which is one of the fastest growing in the Southeast.
It also signals a trend that manycommunities are returning to their roots. Banks were usually amongthe first buildings to come to small towns. Residents knew theirlocal banker because there was only one bank in town, said AllanDucker, chief executive officer of CommunitySouth.
“Banks were the strength of thecommunity,” Ducker said. “We’re seeing that again.”
A major reason for this new wave oflocally-owned banks is that they can offer the little things thatlarger banks can’t, said Russ Williams, president and chiefexecutive officer of BankGreenville.
“There is a different focus,” hesaid. “We’re set up to help the small businessman.”
The 28 bank companies located in thegreater Greenville market had more than $9.4 billion in deposits atthe end of fiscal year 2005, according to a Journal analysis offederal records. That is a 5 percent increase from 2004, and a 52percent increase since 2000.
In comparison, Charleston’s 22 bankssaw $7.1 billion in deposits in 2005. Columbia’s 20 banks had $10billion at the end of 2005, and grew at a faster rate than theGreenville market.
The Charlotte market, which includesGastonia and Concord, had more than $90 billion in 2005, accordingto the analysis.
South Carolina has 99 banks charteredin the state, according to federal records. Greenville has the mostchartered banks with 11, while 23 others are based in the Upstate.
While large banking companies dominatethe market, several small companies have made inroads into Greenvillein the last decade. The Bank of Travelers Rest had the seventhlargest market share at the end of 2005. Greenville First was eighth.Grand South was 11th.
All the branches for these banks arelocated in the Greenville market.
In addition, Carolina First isheadquartered in Greenville and had the area’s largest marketshare, but it also has branches outside the market.
Community South was the first in thiswave of local banks when it chartered in January 2005. It has sincegrown to five branches with the latest opening on Wade HamptonBoulevard last week.
They have plans to have at least 11branches by the end of 2008, Ducker said.
Ducker said he was eating dinner withDavid A. Miller, Community’s president, a few years ago just aftera string of merger announcements. They both believed there could be adifferent way of doing bank business.
They decided to enter the lengthyprocess of forming a new bank, which is a much more arduous task thanopening most small businesses. They had to file a 3-foot-high stackof papers with the state discussing demographics of their potentialclientele and what they would give back to the community.
The state then interviewed the bank’sdirectors, civic leaders and bank competition to see if the peoplebringing the new venture are legitimate businessmen.
Ducker said CommunitySouth does thelittle things such as making sure every person who enters the door issaid hello to, providing baked cookies in the lobby and waiving ATMfees when a customer uses a machine belonging to another bank.
Williams at BankGreenville said similarconversation and a look at the market led to his bank’s charteringin January. He said his bank will focus exclusively on Greenville.
“Our goal isn’t to have a branch onevery street corner,” he said.
A major goal of Independence, whichopened in May, is to get customers talking to real people as opposedto an automated 1-800 system when they have questions about theiraccounts, Miller said.
Barnett said ultimately his bank wantsto be advisors and consultants to locally owned businesses.
“We want to sit and talk strategywith our customers,” he said.
