More than 71% of the bankers in Georgia surveyed by the state's Community Bankers Association oppose statewide branching.
The state's other trade group, the Georgia Bankers Association, says the majority of bankers it has contacted support it.
Who's right? Both groups represent the same bankers. Nearly all of the state's 381 banks are members of the Georgia Bankers Association, and all but about 50 of those are also members of the Community Bankers Association.
State legislators would like to know whom to believe when their legislative session begins in January, because they will once again debate the state's controversial intrastate branching law.
Georgia is one of seven states in the country that restricts statewide branching in some manner. A Georgia bank can branch into another county only by purchasing a whole bank there and then converting it into a branch.
"Our membership, and for that matter their membership, has spoken, and they don't want unrestricted statewide branching at any time," said Julian Hester, president of the Community Bankers. "We will support what our members want because they have the supreme power in our organization."
The state's full House and Senate banking committees will hear that message today and tommorrow at a pre-legislative session at a resort in Young Harris, Ga.
They'll hear another message as well:
"We've had more banks tell us they support our proposal than those opposing it," said J. Joseph Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association, which is pushing for statewide branching. "It's an ongoing process, but I think we have a very good feel for where our members are coming from."
The Georgia Bankers Association proposal is to phase into unrestricted statewide branching by allowing a bank to branch into up to three counties beginning next July. Full statewide branching would take effect two years later.
The Community Bankers oppose statewide branching but support several reforms, such as allowing a bank to branch into a contiguous county once every five years by moving its headquarters up to 30 miles.
Both groups assert they embody the voice of the Georgia banking industry.
To make this claim, the Community Bankers last fall hired an outside firm to survey all the banks in the state. Of the 250 responses, just more than 71% oppose unrestricted branching now and nearly 69% oppose allowing it at some future date.
"We have actual results and evidence, and they (Georgia Bankers Association) have only talk," said W. Dean Kuykendall, chief executive of the $55 million-asset Bank of Madison and last year's president of the Community Bankers group.
The Georgia Bankers Association, which includes all the big banks, pointed out, however, that 71% of the 250 who responded to the poll translates into 177 bankers - less than half of all the bankers in the state.
"Their numbers are skewed," said Kenneth "Jack" Hunnicutt, chief executive of $325 million-asset ABC Bancorp in Moultrie and chairman of the Georgia Bankers. "We have done one-on-one conversations, and our numbers certainly contradict their numbers."
He said his group has contacted roughly 180 bankers, of which about 75%, or 135, support moving toward statewide branching. The responses were gathered through many meetings and phone conversations with bankers, he said.
The point could be moot. The chairman of the House banking committee tipped his hand recently when he told a banker forum that he did not believe statewide branching would ever pass in Georgia.
