The fourth biggest bank in Georgia grew to one of the biggest banks in the Southeast this year with its $2.9 billion acquisition in January of Florida Community Bank.
Synovus, the Columbus, Georgia-based bank which previously consolidated 28 separate banks it had acquired, including the Cohutta Bank & Trust in Chattanooga, completed its conversion this month of the 51 branches of former Florida Community Bank. Synovus is on pace to soon become a nearly $50 billion-asset bank with more than 300 branches in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and Florida, making it the fifth biggest bank in the Southeast.
Biggest banks in Georgia
As of June 30, 2018, the largest banks in the Peach State and their Georgia deposits were:1. SunTrust*, $54.4 billion2. Wells Fargo, $37 billion3. Bank of America, $36.7 million4. Synovus, $15.9 billion5. BB&T*, $12.6 billionSource: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., deposits. SunTrust and BB&T plan to merge later this year.
But in a visit to the Synovus operations in Chattanooga Tuesday, Synovus Chief Operating Officer Kevin Blair said Synovus tries to continue to operate as a community bank with strong relationships to its customers and their businesses.
“We’re a relationship bank and that is what we thrive on and how we out-compete the big guys and out-function our smaller competitors,” Blair said.. “We’re there to provide full service.”