Hugh C. Lane Jr. has stepped down as president and chief executive at the Bank of South Carolina (BKSC) and has been replaced by his longtime associate, Fleetwood S. Hassell.
Lane, the only CEO in the bank's 25-year history, announced his resignation at its annual meeting Tuesday. He will remain the chairman of both the bank and its holding company through the end of 2013. The $330 million-asset company said Wednesday that Lane, 64, would also continue to perform commercial lending and business development activities for the bank.
Hassell, 52, joined the bank when it was in organization in 1986 (it opened in early 1987) as an assistant vice president and has held a variety of positions since then, including senior lending officer. He was elected to the board of the bank and the holding company in 2006.
Douglass Hutson Sass, who had been the bank's senior vice president for commercial lending since 2004, has replaced Hassell as the chief lending officer.
The bank also announced its first-quarter results Wednesday. Buoyed by strong growth in mortgage lending, the company said that earnings rose more than 37% from the same period in 2010, to $891,000. Its return on assets for the quarter was 1.09% and its return on equity was 10.94%.
"Although one quarter does not make a year, we like this start," Lane said in a news release.
