Ameris Bancorp targets Nashville for its next market expansion

• Key insight: Atlanta-based Ameris Bancorp plans to open a commercial banking office in Nashville by the end of 2026, as it favors an organic growth strategy amid market disruption.
  
• What's at stake: The regional bank has recently downplayed its interest in doing mergers and acquisitions, saying there are plenty of growth opportunities within its footprint, which includes some of the fastest-growing markets in the Southeast.
  
• Forward look: By the end of 2027, Ameris expects to have 20 employees serving the Nashville market.

Ameris Bancorp in Atlanta plans to open a commercial banking office in Nashville by the end of the year, a move that reflects its continued focus on organic growth in attractive Southeastern markets.

The $28.1 billion-asset parent company of Ameris Bank is aiming to do more business in the Middle Tennessee region, where it currently operates a mortgage banking office. It has hired a trio of commercial bankers, all from First Citizens BancShares, to help with the expansion effort.

Ameris' growth strategy comes amid a fair amount of market disruption in the bank's Southeast footprint, including this year's merger of equals between Pinnacle Financial Partners, which had been based in Nashville, and Synovus Financial, which was headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. 

In April, Ameris CEO Palmer Proctor said the bank was focused on the "great growth opportunities" in certain "disrupted markets," rather than trying to get larger by way of mergers and acquisitions.

"The benefit we probably have … is by being an overlap market with a lot of the disruptions going on, and already having a presence in those existing markets where you've got name recognition and you may potentially already have some of the wallet share," Proctor said during the bank's first-quarter earnings call. "I think that gives us a leg up over a lot of our competition that just doesn't have the same presence we have in some of those overlapping markets."

Competition in banking has been heating up in the Southeast. Besides the Pinnacle-Synovus merger — which created a $122.8 billion-asset company that's now based in Atlanta and has been reeling in new commercial bankers — Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, and PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh have been investing in their Southeast footprints.

Ameris has done business in the Nashville market since 2012, a company spokesperson said Wednesday in an email. The bank has a mortgage banking office in Franklin, Tennessee.

The one-time active acquirer has more recently turned its focus to building out its business in high-growth markets. In 2021, it entered North Carolina by opening a retail branch in Charlotte.

The company reported loan and deposit growth in the first quarter, as well as rising profitability, with its return on assets growing to 1.62% compared with 1.36% during the same quarter last year. Its net interest margin has expanded for at least the past five quarters, totaling 3.88% in the first quarter, up from 3.73% in the year-ago period.

Last week, a jury awarded $80 million to a former Ameris employee who had sued the bank. The bank said it planned to appeal the result. The jury awarded the money to Patrick Byrne, the former head of Ameris' equipment finance subsidiary, Balboa Capital, which Ameris acquired in 2021, after Byrne alleged that Ameris miscalculated bonus payments it owed to him.

The specific location of the new Nashville office has not yet been determined, the Ameris spokesperson said. The bank expects the office to have about 20 employees by the end of 2027.

To steer its Music City expansion, Ameris hired Justin McClain to serve as market leader. He will report to Lawton Bassett, president of Ameris Bank, the company said in a press release. McClain most recently worked at North Carolina-based First Citizens as a Nashville area executive, according to his LinkedIn profile.

"Justin is a proven banking leader with a deep understanding of the Nashville business community and a strong commitment to client service," Bassett said in the press release. "He will play an important role as we establish our presence in the market and bring Ameris Bank's relationship-focused approach to businesses, professionals and families across the region." 

Ameris' Nashville team also includes Charlie Ogden and Jesse Lee, commercial bankers who will help McClain with the expansion, Ameris said in the press release. Ogden and Lee also most recently worked at First Citizens, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

Bringing McClain, Ogden and Lee on board signals "a focus on immediate, relationship-based commercial banking execution," Piper Sandler analyst Stephen Scouten said in a research note.

"By deploying more seasoned local talent, the bank aims to replicate its relationship-focused model to capture market share in Middle Tennessee," Scouten wrote. "We view this as a constructive step in enhancing the bank's organic loan growth profile and providing fuel to eventually achieve double-digit growth."