THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260312
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
More than a decade after interstate banking began in the Southeast, Wachovia Corp. crossed into Virginia on Monday and opened an office in downtown Norfolk.
``We're extremely interested in Virginia because we think its economic picture is very bright,'' said J. Walter McDowell, president and chief executive officer of Wachovia Bank of North Carolina N.A.
Loan officers from the bank's Winston-Salem headquarters have been making commercial loans in Virginia for 50 years and have developed a long roster of corporate customers in the process, said McDowell, who headed Wachovia's commercial lending activity in Virginia in the early 1980s.
Its new office, on the top floor of the 25-story Dominion Tower, will have full banking powers but will not provide traditional teller service.
Instead, it will concentrate on corporate lending, municipal finance, auto-dealer finance, commercial mortgage services, and banking services for individuals with a high net worth, McDowell said.
Wachovia, he said, decided to limit the range of its services because of the high cost of opening full-service branches in a new market. In addition, the abundance of commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions in Hampton Roads makes this a highly competitive market for consumer banking, McDowell noted.
Since the mid-1980s, bankers and investors in Virginia have expected Wachovia to establish a presence in the state by acquiring a large Virginia bank, much like Charlotte-based NationsBank Corp. and First Union Corp. did in the early 1990s.
Instead, Wachovia took advantage of recent changes in interstate banking laws, which allow commercial banks to move into other states without acquiring an existing bank or starting one. The changes took effect in Virginia last year.
Depending on the performance of its Norfolk office, Wachovia will consider opening similar facilities elsewhere in Virginia, McDowell said.
However, the use of specialized offices does not preclude the possibility that Wachovia will consider merging with another institution in the state, he said.
Wachovia Corp. already operates 480 branch offices in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. With $44.98 billion of assets at year-end 1995, it ranks 20th in asset size among the nation's bank holding companies.
KEYWORDS: WACHOVIA BANK by CNB