BB&T Corporation (Branch Banking and Trust Company) is a large financial service holding company based in Winston-Salem, N.C. operating in the United States. Its bank operates over 2,100 branches in 15 states and Washington, D.C., and offers consumer and commercial banking, securities brokerage, asset management, mortgage and insurance products and services. It is ranked 15th on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets and is the 11th-largest commercial bank in the United States when ranked by assets and deposits. Its subsidiary BB&T Insurance Services is one of the largest insurance brokers in the world.
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History
BB&T dates back to 1872, when Alpheus Branch and Thomas Jefferson Hadley founded the Branch and Hadley merchant bank in their hometown of Wilson, North Carolina. After many transactions, mostly with local farmers, Branch bought out Hadley's shares in 1887 and renamed the company to Branch and Company, Bankers. Two years later, Branch, his father-in-law Gen. Joshua Barnes, Hadley and three other men, secured a charter from the North Carolina General Assembly to operate the Wilson Banking and Trust Company. After several additional name changes, the company finally settled on the name Branch Banking and Trust Company. Branch remained an active member in the company until his death in 1893. The 1903 Branch Banking and Trust Company Building at Wilson was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
BB&T sold Liberty Bonds during World War I and grew to have more than $4 million in assets by 1923. BB&T Insurance Services was added in 1922 and a mortgage division was added in 1923. Even though banks across the United States failed as a result of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, BB&T survived; it was the only one to do so in the town of Wilson.
World War II revived BB&T. BB&T's prosperity continued into the 1960s and 1970s, as mergers and acquisitions grew the company to $343 million in assets with new branches in 35 cities. By 1994, BB&T had become North Carolina's largest bank with more than $10.3 billion in assets and 263 offices in 138 cities in the Carolinas, though it has since slipped to second behind Bank of America.
In 1995, BB&T merged with Southern National Bank, another bank with roots in the eastern part of the state. This gave BB&T 437 branches in 220 cities in the Carolinas and Virginia. The bank continued to expand nationwide through the 1990s, purchasing Fidelity Financial Bankshares, First Financial of Petersburg, Maryland, Maryland Federal Bancorp, and Franklin Bancorporation. In 1998, BB&T acquired MainStreet Financial Corp. of Martinsville, Virginia, and Mason-Dixon Bancshares of Westminster, Maryland, and further expanded into Georgia and West Virginia after purchasing First Liberty of Macon, Georgia, and Matewan Bancshares.
In 2005, BB&T acquired Main Street Banks Inc. of metro Atlanta for $622 million. In 2006, BB&T acquired Coastal Federal Bank, based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
In late 2008, the bank accepted $3.1 billion in bailout money through the sale of preferred shares to the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. In June 2009, the bank agreed to repurchase the shares. Also in June 2009, its chairman, John A. Allison IV delivered a keynote address to a meeting of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he claimed to show how government regulation caused the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
On August 14, 2009, the deposits and loan accounts of Colonial Bank were being transferred to BB&T as part of Colonial Bank's receivership by the FDIC. This acquisition added more than 340 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas along with approximately $22 billion in assets. BB&T sold the Nevada branch to U.S. Bancorp in January 2010.
In 2012, BB&T acquired BankAtlantic, and its $2.1 billion in loans and $3.3 billion in deposits.
On December 18, 2013, BB&T announced the purchase of 21 Citigroup branches in Texas for $36 million, adding $1.2 billion in deposits. After starting with 19 former Colonial branches and adding 41 more locations, BB&T increased its presence in the state to 81 branches with $2.8 billion in deposits, increasing its rank from 38th to 20th.
In 2014, BB&T announced it was buying 41 more Citigroup branches, which added 123 branches and $5.3 billion in deposits.
In 2015, BB&T acquired Bank of Kentucky for $363 million, which added $1.9 billion in assets and gave BB&T a presence in the Northern Kentucky-Cincinnati market, and its first branches in Ohio.
On April 1, 2015, BB&T said it was selling American Coastal Insurance Co. to management of AMRisc LP. BB&T Insurance Holdings also said it would own more of AMRisc.
On April 2, 2015, BB&T subsidiary CRC Insurance Services Inc. said it would buy the strategic assets of Napco LLC, a broker of catastrophic commercial insurance started in 1996.
BB&T completed the $2.5 billion purchase of Susquehanna Bank on August 3, 2015, the bank's first move into Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The acquisition added 240 branches and $18.7 billion in assets.
BB&T completed the acquisition of National Penn for $1.8 billion on April 4, 2016. The acquisition added 124 branches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, $9.6 billion in assets, and $6.7 billion in deposits.
Corporate affairs
BB&T has made many donations to organizations operating in its markets and is a major sponsor of Project HOPE.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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