DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310656

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   56 lines

WACHOVIA TO CLOSE BRANCHES SOME JEFFERSON NATIONAL AND CENTRAL FIDELITY OFFICES WILL BE CONSOLIDATED AFTER MERGERS

Ten Central Fidelity National Bank and Jefferson National Bank branches in Hampton Roads will be closed early next year as a result of Wachovia Corp.'s takeover of the two Virginia Banks, the companies announced Thursday.

Two additional Central Fidelity branches in Virginia Beach and one in Suffolk will be converted to ``express offices.'' Those branches will be staffed only with drive-through tellers and ATM machines, Wachovia spokesman Paul E. Mason said.

The consolidation is the result of Wachovia's bold June entrance into Virginia. The Winston-Salem, N.C.-based banking giant snapped up Jefferson Bankshares for an exchange of stock valued at $542 million and two weeks later exchanged more than $2 billion in shares for Richmond-based Central Fidelity Banks Inc.

Before its pending merger with Wachovia, Central Fidelity was the third largest Virginia-based bank. It has 60 branches and about 750 employees in Hampton Roads. Jefferson has 14 branches in Hampton Roads.

Complying with federal requirements, Wachovia, Central Fidelity and Jefferson announced Thursday they would sell 16 branches to One Valley Bancorp of Charleston, W.Va. Two of the 16 were Central Fidelity branches in Emporia.

Some bank branch employees will be affected by the consolidation, Mason said, but Wachovia will try to place them elsewhere in its system.

``Both Central Fidelity and Jefferson will limit hiring throughout the branch network between now and January,'' he said. ``This, combined with natural attrition, should result in few employees being displaced.''

The consolidation in Hampton Roads is part of a statewide consolidation of dozens of branches of the three banks. Two rounds of branch closings will take place in early 1998 and the second in March.

Wachovia will wind up with 261 branches and 321 ATMs in Virginia. Central Fidelity Chief Executive Officer Lewis N. Miller Jr., who will become chairman and CEO of Virginia banking for Wachovia, noted that the number of Wachovia locations ``will exceed the coverage'' either bank now offers.

Wachovia will notify customers whose branches are being closed. New banking cards will be issued early next year, and customers can use checks from their former banks until they need to reorder, Mason said.

Branches that remain in Wachovia's network will open Monday, March 23, as Wachovia offices.

Wachovia ended September with assets of $47.5 billion. When the mergers with Central Fidelity, Jefferson and a Florida bank are completed, it will have more than $60 billion in assets and will be the 17th largest bank holding company in the country. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

The Virginian-Pilot

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SOURCE: Wachovia Corp.

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

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