NationsBank
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| Industry | Banking |
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| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
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Key people
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Hugh McColl (former president) |
NationsBank was one of the largest banking corporations in the United States, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company named NationsBank was formed through the merger of several other banks in 1991, and prior to that had been through multiple iterations. Its oldest predecessor companies had been Commercial National Bank (CNB), formed in 1874, and American Trust Company founded in 1909. In 1998, NationsBank acquired BankAmerica, and modified that better-known name to become Bank of America.
NationsBank traced its roots to two banks in Charlotte. Commercial National Bank (CNB), the earliest forerunner of NationsBank, was formed in 1874. American Trust Company was founded a few blocks down Tryon Street in 1909.
In 1957, American Trust merged with Commercial National to form American Commercial Bank. American Trust was the nominal survivor, and its president, Addison Reese, became president of the merged bank. Only four years later, in 1960, American Commercial merged with Greensboro-based Security National Bank to form North Carolina National Bank. Although American Commercial was the nominal survivor, it gave up its North Carolina state charter and took over Security's national charter. In the early 1970s, it reorganized as the leading subsidiary of NCNB Corporation.
Reese turned over the presidency of NCNB to then 39-year-old Hugh McColl, who began an aggressive period of expansion. This was initially a defensive move. At the time, it was feared that the New York City money center banks might devour local Southern banks. It was believed that the only way to prevent this was if the stronger banks in the region became too rich to be taken over. NCNB expanded beyond North Carolina for the first time in 1982, when it purchased Lake City, Florida–based First National Bank of Lake City. McColl became CEO of NCNB the following year.
In 1988, NCNB's assets grew to $60 billion after it bought the failed First RepublicBank Corporation of Dallas, Texas from the FDIC. FirstRepublic, the largest bank in Texas, had entered FDIC receivership after filing bankruptcy in March, and was the largest FDIC bank failure in history.
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