Georgia

Tandem Bank has approval from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance as its aims to become the state's first new bank since the financial crisis.

Community banks in the state have struggled to attract the funds to meet surging loan demand, but that could change now that a new law has made it easier for them to accept government deposits.

It just got harder for banks in Georgia to enforce noncompete agreements in employee contracts. For employees of two merging banks, BB&T and SunTrust, the timing couldn’t be better.

The two banks’ CEOs used a public hearing to argue their merger will be a boon for underserved markets. But other speakers warned that bank consolidation hurts communities.

CEO Kessell Stelling said he thinks about Synovus' depressed stock price daily, even though his team is ahead of schedule cutting costs from a deal that closed in January.

The cold, hard truth of bank mergers is that rivals often steal top producers and convince customers the bigger bank won’t care about them anymore. The CEOs of the merging banks explain their retention efforts.

Tens of millions of dollars of M&A costs and a decline in mortgage activity offset higher loan income in the first quarter at the two banks, which also offered a timeline for their rebranding and shareholder votes.

Allison Dukes says she will not be joining the combined company because she wants to remain in Atlanta, where she is involved with several civic and philanthropic organizations. The merged company will be headquartered in Charlotte, N.C.

The Jacksonville-based credit union kicked off 2019 by buying a bank and expanding into Georgia, but VyStar's moves may hold lessons for CUs far beyond the southeast.

The deal between Performance Trust and Banks Street Partners is the second combination this month of investment banks that cater to commercial banks.