THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220497
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
First Union National Bank has agreed to sell two branches in Waverly and Courtland and said it will close a branch at the Patrick Henry Mall in Newport News.
The Virginia subsidiary of Charlotte-based First Union Corp. is considering selling or relocating other branches in the region, William Slayton, First Union's area president for Hampton Roads, said.
The bank decided to sell its Courtland and Franklin branches because they were too far from its core group of branches in Hampton Roads, he said.
First Union has agreed to sell the two branches, along with $36.37 million of deposits, to Bank of Waverly, a unit of the Suffolk bank holding company James River Bankshares Inc. Loans made at the two branches will remain with First Union.
Bank of Waverly said it expected to complete the transaction early next year. The sale is subject to approval by banking regulators.
The bank, which has branches in Waverly and Sussex, said it will hire employees at the two First Union branches.
In mid-1994, First Union's Courtland branch had deposits of $22.46 million and accounted for 29 percent of financial-institution deposits in Southampton County, according to the University of Virginia's Financial Institutions Data Exchange. The Charlottesville-based exchange maintains an inventory of branch locations and deposits throughout the state. First Union's branch in Franklin had $15.4 million of deposits in mid-1994 and accounted for slightly more than 7 percent of Franklin's bank, thrift and credit union deposits in June 1994, according to the Financial Institutions Data Exchange.
Slayton said he expected First Union's office in Patrick Henry Mall to close in mid-January. ``Deposits at that branch are not growing, and loan activity has been stagnant,'' he said.
The branch, which opened in late 1987, had $2.39 million of deposits at mid-1994 and accounted for less than 1 percent of bank, thrift and credit union deposits in Newport News.
Accounts at the mall branch will be shifted to a First Union branch in the Oyster Point section of Newport News, Slayton said.
First Union's branch sales in Courtland and Franklin and the pending shutdown of the Newport News branch come in the midst of greater scrutiny of branch operations by major statewide banks.
Crestar Bank and NationsBank have closed some branches in Hampton Roads and relocated others during the past year. by CNB