The annual Deposit Market Share Report is a snapshot of bank deposits that is collected on June 30. The one-day look at funds on hand gets a variety of views from bankers, depending on the bank's standing.
"If it shows them gaining market share, some bankers are interested in touting that," said Steve Bridges, president and CEO of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia. "However, all bankers are not interested in that."
Community banks, smaller banks that operate in one or two counties, have been increasing in fast-growing counties like Hall. There are currently 16 banks operating in the county, including four that began operations here since the last report was issued in 2004. During the same time, three banks merged with another bank in the market.
The report is the first issued since the April departure of the top management of longtime market leader Regions Bank. The bank's top local executive, Rich White, and a number of key officers left Regions to join Blairsville-based United Community Bank.
The report shows that United Community's deposits jumped from $11.1 million on June 30, 2004, to $70.7 million in this year's report, a 533 percent increase.
"We are just beside ourselves," said White, who is chairman of United Community Bank of Hall County. "People bank with people and clearly a good number of our customers came with us."
"I'm elated with our progress," Tallent said. "Not only have we assembled an excellent team of bankers, but at the end of September we had a $200 million loan portfolio."
Tallent said that his desire was to be a $300 million bank by the end of 2006 and that the bank has reached two-thirds of that goal in five months.
He added that the news is more impressive because the bank has only had its first retail location open for a few weeks and does not have permanent offices for the 68 staff members, most of whom are former Regions associates.
Regions CEO Rock Hunt admits that his bank was in a highly competitive environment when the report was issued in June. He disputes the notion that his bank's $67.7 million drop was a direct result of the departure of top management to United Community.
"I think we'll be able to look back on this particular summer as a bump in the road," said Hunt, who took the helm at Regions following the departure of White and others.
"Calling this a price war may be overstated," he said, adding that he believes that his bank has the personnel and branch locations to continue to lead the market.
"We had a wonderful year," said Allen Brinkman, regional president for Wachovia. "One of our goals was to have a 20 percent share of the market and I thought that would take five years."
Wachovia and Regions have been the market leaders for the past decade. In the 2000 report, Regions had a 36.45 percent share of the deposit market and Wachovia had 21.31 percent.
Branch Banking and Trust (BB&T), which catapulted to second in last year's report, showed a loss of $220 million in deposits in Hall County, a drop of 58.6 percent, which dropped it to fourth behind Gainesville Bank and Trust (GB&T).
Bob Denham, a BB&T spokesman in Winston Salem, N.C., said that the loss of market share could be attributed to the loss of a single large time deposit.
GB&T's numbers were buoyed by their acquisition of Southern Heritage Bank and organic growth of $11.8 million in deposits. J. Michael Whitmire, president and chief operating officer of GB&T, said that while he is pleased with his bank's growth, he questions the accuracy of the numbers.
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