The fourth biggest bank in Georgia grew to one of the biggest banks in the Southeast this year with its $2.9 billion acquisition in January of Florida Community Bank.
Synovus, the Columbus, Georgia-based bank which previously consolidated 28 separate banks it had acquired, including the Cohutta Bank & Trust in Chattanooga, completed its conversion this month of the 51 branches of former Florida Community Bank. Synovus is on pace to soon become a nearly $50 billion-asset bank with more than 300 branches in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, making it the fifth biggest bank in the Southeast.
Biggest banks in Georgia
As of June 30, 2018, the largest banks in the Peach State and their Georgia deposits were:1. SunTrust*, $54.4 billion2. Wells Fargo, $37 billion3. Bank of America, $36.7 million4. Synovus, $15.9 billion5. BB&T*, $12.6 billionSource: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., deposits. SunTrust and BB&T plan to merge later this year.
But in a visit to the Synovus operations in Chattanooga Tuesday, Synovus Chief Operating Officer Kevin Blair said Synovus tries to continue to operate as a community bank with strong relationships to its customers and their businesses.
"We're a relationship bank and that is what we thrive on and how we out-compete the big guys and out-function our smaller competitors," Blair said.. "We're there to provide full service."
At the newly acquired $12 billion-asset parent of Florida Community Bank, that means adding wealth management, small business and retail lending to a potential market of over 1.5 million persons who live within a 3-mile radius of a Florida Community Bank.
"Synovus has long been known for combining the personal service of a community bank with the financial resources and market capabilities of a large regional bank," Synovus CEO Kessel Stelling said earlier this year.
While Synovus invests heavily in new technologies and online banking options, Blair said branch offices "still serve as the primary epicenter for sales," and remain vital in serving consumers. Synovus has pruned the number of bank branches in its footprint by 21 percent over the past decade, but that is still below the industrywide cut of 24 percent by incumbent banks. Blair said Synovus continues to look for new branch sites even while it shuts down locations in underperforming areas.
"When individuals need to make some kind of financial transaction, they often want to look at someone else eye to eye and to be able to have a consultative relationship to give advice and to hear what is best for them," Blair said. "We've got to continue to rationalize our branch network, but I think branches are still important."
Transaction volumes of check cashing, deposits gathering and other simple tasks are dropping about 6-7 percent a year as more consumers take advantage of digital and remote self-service banking options, Blair said.
"What is not declining at local branches are opening accounts and small business transactions," he said.
In Chattanooga, Synovus operates bank offices downtown and in Hixson and last year Synovus Mortgage opened an office in Ooltewah. In growth areas of the region, Synovus may add other local branches as its growth warrants, Chattanooga's Synovus Market President Mike Sarvis said.
After digesting its biggest purchase ever in January, Synovus is taking a year off from making more bank purchases, although it is financially sound enough for more acquisitions, Blair said.
The pending merger of two of Synovus' competitors in Georgia - SunTrust and BB&T - will likey lead to consolidate offices and staff in some areas for those banks, and Blair said such changes create business opportunities in the market. Blair said Synovus is working to expedite its loan approval process, which is already better than the industry average, to an even quicker speed to better serve small businesses and investors.
Bank investors on Wall Street are still waiting on how the purchase of Florida Community Bank works out for Synovus. But Blair, who spent 20 years at SunTrust before joining Synovus as chief financial officer three years ago, is confident. The bank beat analysts forecasts in the first quarter and next year should be able to realize economies of scale from its purchase, he said.
Shares of Synovus have dropped by more than a third in the past year amid concerns about how the purchase of Florida Community Bank will play out.
"We have to deliver on this merger, which we've largely done to this point, beating our first quarter consensus number for earnings by 7 cents per share," Blair said. "I think we'll be in fine shape this year and we need to deliver in 2020, and I think we will."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340