Taking advantage of a loophole in federal law, NationsBank Corp. is planning to combine its banks in North and South Carolina before the new interstate branching law takes effect. NationsBank, which is based in Charlotte, N.C., has filed a plan with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to relocate the headquarters of its South Carolina bank to Charlotte in several steps. An 1866 law allows a nationally chartered bank to move its headquarters within a 30-mile radius in any direction, including over state lines.
The bank company estimates that consolidating all its subsidiaries will save about $50 million a year.
Under the plan, NationsBank would first move the headquarters of its South Carolina bank from Columbia, near the center of the state, to Rock Hill, S.C., about 25 miles from Charlotte. NationsBank would then be able to transfer that headquarters unit to Charlotte.
The plan is contingent on regulators' approving NationsBank's $54 million purchase of Rock Hill-based RHNB Corp., which was announced in July.
If all goes well, NationsBank expects to merge the North and South Carolina banks by yearend.
NationsBank could accomplish all of this in 1997, anyway, under the interstate banking bill that passed Congress this month.
But bank spokeswoman Mary Waller said NationsBank decided to make the move two and a half years early as a service to its customers.
After the two Carolinas banks are merged, NationsBank customers who live in one state but work in the other would be able to deposit their paychecks or transact other banking business in either state.
NationsBank exploited the same loophole in federal law to merge its District of Columbia and Maryland banks this year.
The OCC granted NationsBank permission to move the headquarters of its American Security Bank subsidiary from Washington to Silver Spring, Md., and then to merge American Security with Maryland National Bank, Baltimore, another subsidiary.
