Georgia Bank Financial Corp. in Augusta has ambitions beyond its home state - and has taken new steps to realize them.
Last Tuesday the $750 million-asset company changed its name, to Southeastern Bank Financial Corp., and said it had filed with the Office of Thrift Supervision to open a thrift in Aiken, S.C.
R. Daniel Blanton, the company's president and chief executive officer, said it hopes to open the new thrift, probably to be called Southern Bank and Trust, in the first quarter. Several South Carolina branches are planned for the next year or two, he said. (Southeastern also recently announced plans to build an Athens, Ga., branch of its Georgia Bank and Trust.)
Mr. Blanton said his 16-year-old company has been interested for a while in moving into Aiken, because it has a "vibrant economy" with a large retirement community.
Aiken is just 20 miles from Augusta, a straight shot along Interstate 20.
"It's a natural complement to our market, and we already have a good bit of business there," Mr. Blanton said.
Southeastern found a local banker to run the new thrift. Its president will be Francis "Frank" A. Townsend 3d, who had been a senior vice president and commercial sales manager for Regions Bank and Palmetto Federal Bank in Aiken, which Regions acquired in 1998.
South Carolina does not allow Georgia banks to branch in, and Mr. Blanton said that there is nothing in Aiken that Southeastern could buy. In the last 10 years three of the four banks that had been based in Aiken were acquired, leaving only the $586 million-asset Security Federal Bank.
Mr. Blanton said that the thrift charter was attractive because it will enable Southeastern to easily branch into other states, though he stressed that it will not do so for quite some time.
"Georgia and South Carolina ... will definitely keep us busy for the foreseeable future," he said.
