Citizens & Southern National Bank

Citizens and Southern National Bank (C&S) began as a Georgia institution that expanded into South Carolina, Florida and into other states via mergers. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia; C&S merged with Sovran Bank in 1990 to form C&S/Sovran in hopes of fending off a hostile takeover attempt by NCNB Corporation. Only a year later, however, C&S/Sovran merged with NCNB to form NationsBank. Both are now part of the modern day Bank of America.

A former Charleston, SC, C&S location, Citizens and Southern National Bank of South Carolina, is the second oldest bank building in the U.S. and possibly the oldest still used as a bank. Constructed in 1798 as the Bank of South Carolina it later became the home for the Charleston Library Society (1835), then belonged to the Charleston Chamber of Commerce (1914), and finally became a bank again when C&S purchased the two-story building in 1966. Located at 50 Broad Street, it is now a private office building.

The bank began in Georgia with the merger of the Citizens Bank of Savannah (established November 2, 1887) and its crosstown rival, the Southern Bank of Georgia in 1906. Mills B. Lane had begun at Citizens Bank as a vice president and director in 1891. In 1901, Lane became president of Citizens Bank. In 1906, Lane and his associates purchased Southern Bank of Georgia enabling them to merge the two banks as the new C&S Bank. The newly merged banks were officially named the Citizens and Southern Bank of Georgia.

In 1922 Citizens and Southern absorbed Central Bank and Trust Corp., the bank founded by Coca-Cola co-founder Asa Griggs Candler.

In preparation to open offices in South Carolina, Citizens and Southern Bank received its charter from the Comptroller of the Currency on May 2, 1927. The "place where its operations ... are to be carried on," is described in that charter as the "City of Savannah, in the County of Chatham and State of Georgia."Mills Lane Jr. and Hugh C. Lane were important figures in the growth and success of C&S. Mills Lane Jr., serving as president, vice chairman and chairman between 1946 and 1973, made C&S the South's largest bank as well as the most profitable of the 50 largest U.S. banks. Hugh C. Lane was elected chairman of C&S in 1960.

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