In 2005, VantageSouth began in
Burlington, North Carolina. In 2010, Piedmont bought a majority stake in VantageSouth. On October 5, 2011, it was announced that Piedmont would buy VantageSouth, which had two branches in Burlington, $91 million in assets and $73 million in deposits, and that the company would take the name VantageSouth. Piedmont had a controlling interest in VantageSouth and in
Salisbury, North Carolina–based Community Bank of
Rowan, which would also merge with the company. On October 24, 2011, Piedmont announced it would acquire a controlling interest in
Cary, North Carolina–based Crescent Financial Bancshares, parent of Crescent State Bank. Abram would become Crescent chairman, and Piedmont president and former
RBC Bank CEO Scott Custer would be Crescent CEO. In August 2012, Crescent announced a merger with VantageSouth, On September 25, 2012, Crescent and
Engelhard, North Carolina–based East Carolina Bank, with 25 branches, announced their merger. Once the East Carolina deal was completed, VantageSouth had 45 branches in central and eastern North Carolina and $2 billion in assets. It was announced in January 2014 that five of those will close. ==History of Yadkin Financial==