First Union Bank

First Union Corporation

Former type	Bank holding company
Industry	Banking
Fate	Merged with Wachovia
Successor	Wachovia (now Wells Fargo)
Founded	1908; 109 years ago (1908)
Founder	H.M. Victor
Defunct	2001 (company), 2003 (brand)
Headquarters	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Areas served	2,193 branches in 11 states
Products	Financial Services
Total assets	$171 billion
Number of employees	71,262
Website	www.firstunion.com

First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the eastern U.S. First Union also provided various other financial services, including mortgage banking, credit card, investment banking (First Union Securities), investment advisory, home equity lending, asset-based lending, leasing, insurance, international and securities brokerage services and private equity (First Union Capital Partners), through other subsidiaries. In September 2001, First Union completed a merger with Wachovia National Bank to become Wachovia Corporation, one of the largest financial holding companies in the US. As of the end of 2000, First Union had over $170 billion of total assets, over 70,000 employees and nearly 2,200 branches.

First Union Corporation was founded as Union National Bank on June 2, 1908, a small banking desk in the lobby of a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, by H.M. Victor.

The bank merged with First National Bank and Trust Company of Asheville in 1958 to become First Union National Bank of North Carolina. In 1964, the bank added Cameron-Brown company, a mortgage banking and insurance firm.

First Union Corporation was incorporated in 1967. In February 1968, Cameron-Brown Co., a $10 billion mortgage banker created in 1955 from the merger of Fidelity Bond & Mortgage Co. (started in 1946 in Raleigh) and Brown-Hamel Mortgage Co. of Greensboro, changed its name to First Union Mortgage Corp. to match its parent company. As part of a corporate reorganization in 1968, a predecessor of First Union National Bank and First Union Mortgage Corporation, the mortgage banking firm acquired in 1964 became subsidiaries of First Union Corp creating the structure the bank utilized until the 2001 merger.

Starting in 1985, with the Supreme Court decision upholding regional interstate banking legislation, First Union focused on an aggressive growth strategy and from 1985 through the merger with Wachovia in 2001, First Union completed over 90 banking-related acquisitions, 50 of which were completed between 1985 and 1995.Atlantic National Bank of Jacksonville, Florida, merged with First Union in 1985.