Bank of Commerce & Trust began in 1873. Its
limestone Classical Revival building was built in 1929. The 31-story
One Commerce Square was completed in 1973 and has also been called the NBC Building and the SunTrust Building. In 1982, when Thomas M. Garrott became president of National Bank of Commerce and its parent company National Commerce Bancorporation (NCBC), NBC had 24 branches in Memphis. In 1985, NCBC made an arrangement with
Kroger, which resulted in NBC branches being located inside grocery stores in
Tennessee,
Kentucky,
Missouri,
Arkansas,
Mississippi and
Alabama. The first in-store branch opened in
Germantown, Tennessee, later that year. During 1985 and 1986, NBC entered the
Nashville, Tennessee, and
Knoxville, Tennessee, markets under the names "Nashville Bank of Commerce" and "NBC Knoxville Bank". By 1988, NBC had 48 branches, 33 inside stores. At the end of 1992, NCBC had total assets of $2.3 billion. Garrott became chairman when Bruce Campbell retired. In 1993, NCBC bought the charter of First Federal
Savings Bank of
Belzoni, Mississippi, allowing NCBC to operate in more than one state. Later in the year, NBC entered
Roanoke, Virginia. In 1994, NCBC began a consulting subsidiary and entered the
Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, market. In 1995 and 1999,
U.S. Banker named NCBC the number one financial institution of the top 100 in the United States. In 1996, NBC entered the
Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina, market and north
Georgia. In 1997, NCBC and
Ukrop's started First Market Bank, which the two companies owned jointly, with branches in Ukrop's Super Markets. This marked the company's entry into
Richmond, Virginia. In 1999, BankINVESTOR named NCBC the top financial institution in the United States in terms of five-year results. That same year, NCBC bought First Financial Corporation of
Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and entered the
Charleston, West Virginia, market. NCBC also joined
Standard & Poor's MidCap 400 Bank Index. In 2000, NCBC bought Piedmont Bancorp. of
Hillsborough, North Carolina. Later that same year, NCBC agreed to a $1.94 billion "merger of equals" NCBC would be the surviving corporation. Corporate headquarters would stay in Memphis but Durham would be the operational headquarters. NCBC chairman and chief executive officer Garrott would become chairman, while CCB chairman and CEO Ernest C. Roessler would become CEO of the new company. The combination would give NCBC "market capitalization of about $4.2 billion, combined assets of $15 billion, deposits of $11.3 billion and 370 branches in eight states".
Wachovia Securities vice president John B. Moore pointed out that NCBC "is the first major out-of-state bank to come into North Carolina, which is a highly competitive, very concentrated market." In April 2001, National Commerce Bancorporation changed its name to National Commerce Financial Corporation. Later in July 2001, NCF announced the $126 million purchase of SouthBanc Shares, Inc. of
Anderson, South Carolina, which had 11 branches and $671 million in assets, $508 million in loans and $452 million in deposits in the
Greenville-Spartanburg area. Also in 2001, NCF bought First Vantage Bank of
Knoxville, Tennessee, and announced a plan to locate ten branches inside
Bi-Lo stores in South Carolina. As a result of the
First Union-Wachovia merger, NCF bought twelve branches of the former
First Union and
Wachovia banks in Georgia and Virginia which would become NBC branches. 25 other branches became CCB locations as of February 15, 2002, and one became a
First Bank. When Garrott announced his retirement in April 2002, NCF had 447 branches, 156 of them in stores, in nine states. In May 2004, NCF announced it would merge with SunTrust, making SunTrust the seventh-largest bank in the United States. Several Kroger branches in the Nashville, Tennessee, and Durham, North Carolina, areas were merged into U.S. Bank branches. Also announced at that time were the fates of NCF's major executives. NCF
chief operating officer Richard Furr would head the Carolinas group. Scott Edwards, chief administrative officer, would become head of credit for the Carolinas and be based in Durham. Robert Jones would succeed the retiring Richard Glover as
Triangle-area president. John Stallings, NCF head of retail banking, would oversee SunTrust's Carolinas group retail business. NCF Atlanta region president would take over the Carolinas group commercial and commercial
real estate areas. ==References==