September 9, 2009
BB&T officials discuss future of Colonial Bank workers, assets
By Cosby Woodruff
BB&T officials said the bank's merger with failed Colonial Bank could take up to a year to complete -- with
the fate of Colonial's headquarters and many of its employees up in the air.
BB&T Alabama president Donta Wilson, South Alabama region president Jodie Hughes and senior vice president for corporate communications Cynthia Williams visited the Montgomery Advertiser on Tuesday to discuss the bank's plans for the customers and employees it acquired from the FDIC after Colonial collapsed.
Hughes said it will be anywhere from eight months to a year before the bank decides how many employees it needs in the market and who will fill those jobs.
Colonial employed about 975 people in Montgomery and about 2,000 in Alabama
when it closed Aug. 14.
The bank doesn't plan any immediate mass layoffs, but it is
likely to have fewer employees when the operational merger is complete.
"It is really too early to tell what that number will be," Hughes said.
Colonial's corporate employees may find out their fates sooner, as Williams said BB&T is analyzing how many corporate employees are needed on a department-by-department basis, instead of waiting until all the positions in all the departments are analyzed.
She said that BB&T would try to keep as many of the employees as it could, offering some transfers to bank offices in other states.
BB&T sent a letter to former Colonial employees last month saying that most branch and customer-contact employees would be retained. Some administration employees will be offered transfers to other BB&T locations, while others are likely to lose their jobs.
Also up in the air are several former Colonial assets, including
the former headquarters building and a corporate jet.
Williams said
the FDIC, which
currently owns the building, will complete a valuation of the headquarters and will offer it to BB&T. She said although
BB&T will make a decision once it hears that valuation, it is
likely the bank
will refuse the building. She said the bank will definitely not buy the corporate jet.
BB&T does not expect to have a formal Alabama headquarters, officials said. But Wilson,
the bank's leading executive in the state, will be based in Birmingham.
He and Hughes insist that doesn't mean the bank sees Birmingham as the more important market or Birmingham as its state headquarters. He said while some in Birmingham speculated that would mean Montgomery jobs would move to Birmingham, that speculation is false.
"It doesn't matter where I sit or where he sits," Wilson said while gesturing at Hughes. "Our regional presidents have decision-making ability. We are a community bank."
As for the former Colonial branches that BB&T now operates, Hughes said not only doesn't BB&T plan to close any of them, it plans to expand during the next year or two.
Until BB&T completes the merger, former Colonial customers will be hybrid Colonial/BB&T customers. Checks and debit cards will continue to carry the Colonial logo until operations are fully merged, Hughes said. Even new accounts opened at former Colonial locations will bring checks and cards bearing the blue Colonial eagle head.
Wilson said BB&T has taken aggressive steps to keep its customers from fleeing to other banks as it establishes itself in the market.
"We are getting the message out that things are safe and sound," he said.
The two said they and others from BB&T are visiting key customers and community leaders to demonstrate that the bank will be part of their communities,
During the past few weeks, BB&T has donated $250,000 to the United Way in Alabama, including a $100,000 gift in Montgomery. It also picked up Colonial's sponsorship of Auburn athletics and expects to announce an athletic sponsorship with the University of Alabama later this month, Wilson said.
Customers seem to be confident in the bank. Hughes said money is flowing into BB&T.
Alabama deposits are up by about $23 million since BB&T took over less than three weeks ago. About half of that, some $12.3 million, is in the Montgomery area market, which includes Montgomery, Autauga, Elmore, Chilton, Covington, Pike, Butler, Crenshaw and Conecuh counties.
"Our clients are staying with us," Hughes said. "Now they feel even more secure, and we are seeing them coming back to us."
BB&T is going to be more aggressive in business and consumer lending. Wilson said Colonial's loan portfolio was heavy in construction loans, but BB&T seeks more diversification.
"We are excited about the lending business and want to make every qualified loan we can," he said.
That includes consumer products such as second mortgages and car loans. BB&T will have on-the-lot financing available at a network of new car dealers after some months, Hughes said.
Wilson said it will probably be several more weeks before BB&T legal and credit analysts complete a review of the deal with the FDIC that allows the bank to share up to $15 billion in bad loans with the FDIC. It could be years before the final details are covered, he said.
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I saw that also. I guess that is good news for redevelopment of that area of downtown. It's near hiijadk's lofts too.
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