SouthTrust Corporation

SouthTrust

Former type	Defunct, merged into Wachovia
Industry	Finance and Insurance
Fate	Acquired by Wachovia
Founded	1887 as Birmingham Trust and Savings Company
Defunct	2004
Headquarters	Birmingham, Alabama, United States
Key people	Wallace D. Malone Jr., Chief Executive Officer Julian Banton, President
Products	Financial Services
Revenue	$3.32 billion USD (2003)
Number of employees	12,400 (2003)

SouthTrust Corporation was a banking company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. In 2004, SouthTrust reached an agreement to merge with Wachovia in a stock-for-stock deal. At the time of the merger with Wachovia was completed, SouthTrust had $53 Billion in assets. SouthTrust was listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol SOTR. The Company was headquartered in the SouthTrust Tower, now known as the Wachovia Tower. SouthTrust had branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. By the end of 2005, all former SouthTrust branches that remained open carried the Wachovia name.

SouthTrust Corporation began as Birmingham Trust and Savings Company in 1887. In 1946 the bank sought a charter to become a national bank. After receiving the charter, the name of the bank changed to Birmingham Trust National Bank, which was commonly known as BTNB. In 1972 BTNB combined with three other Alabama banks to become the Alabama Financial Group, Inc. which was a holding company for the four banks. In 1974 the holding company changed its name to Southern Bancorporation of Alabama. Through the rest of the 1970s, Southern Bank continued buying other community banks located throughout Alabama. By this time Southern Bank held assets of over $1 billion.

In 1981 the holding company again changed its name, this time to SouthTrust Corporation. In 1986, SouthTrust decided to build a new building for its headquarters in downtown Birmingham. Work began right away on what would become the 34 story SouthTrust Tower. SouthTrust had $5.3 billion in assets by the end of 1986 and had expanded as much as it could in its home state of Alabama. After a change in an Alabama law allowed banks to buy other banks in the 12 southeastern states, SouthTrust made its first purchase outside of Alabama. In 1987 SouthTrust purchased the Central Bank of South Daytona Beach located in Daytona Beach, Florida. SouthTrust quickly focused on Florida for its new acquisitions and acquired many banks, mostly located in northern and Central Florida. Towards the end of 1987 SouthTrust made its first entry into the Georgia market when it moved the SouthTrust National Bank of Russell County headquarters across the state line to Columbus, Georgia.