Alabama's SouthTrust Initiates Hiring Blitz To Unify Brokerage, Trust,

Four months into his job at SouthTrust Bank, Richard S. White Jr. has taken his first step to bring together private banking, trust, and brokerage.

Mr. White, a SouthTrust executive vice president, said he plans to triple the bank's retail brokerage sales force, from 47 to 150, in the next two years.

The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank, which has 520 branches in seven states, already has added six salespeople to its force, Mr. White said. "We see the brokerage side of the business as a major product line," he said.

That emphasis, Mr. White said, is aiding the cooperation between the bank's trust, private banking, and brokerage units-a goal he set out for SouthTrust when he joined the company in February.

Mr. White said SouthTrust executives felt its sales force was not sufficient to cover its markets, especially because the bank is planning to build more branches within its territory.

SouthTrust's brokers, who all have Series 7 licenses, sell mutual funds from large players like OppenheimerFunds, Fidelity Investments, and Zurich- Kemper; stocks and bonds; and annuities from Aetna, Protective Life, and ITT Hartford.

The bank plans to add Protective Life and Aetna life insurance policies to its product line.

Mr. White joined SouthTrust from Cole Taylor Financial Group, Wheeling, Ill. Before Cole Taylor, he had been a senior executive vice president and senior trust and investment services executive at Premier Bancorp, Baton Rouge, La.

Premier had a strong brokerage effort, Mr. White said. He added that SouthTrust is "trying to have that type of success."

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