CCB Financial Corp. is putting new emphasis on its retail bank.
The $5.4 billion-asset Durham, N.C., company said it has created a retail banking administration division to focus on sales and customer service. And it named John S. Ramsey Jr., senior vice president and director of marketing, to manage the new division.
The new group combines several areas that traditionally operated separately, including marketing, customer data base management, sales tracking and training, branch operations, and customer service.
"Now we've got an area that can go soup to nuts," said Richard L. Furr, CCB's chief operating officer. "Retail has been a big part of who we are, but there are significant changes in the marketplace, and with the growth of our bank, we needed to do some reorganization to allow us to better focus on that marketplace."
Major initiatives within CCB's retail banking operation include an aggressive expansion into supermarket banking and a home banking product that will be rolled out in the third quarter.
Analysts said that appointing a retail banking chief is a natural step for CCB as it completes the $325 million acquisition of Greenville, S.C.- based American Federal Bank, which has $1.3 billion of assets and 40 branches in northwestern South Carolina.
"This company has grown significantly, and with the merger, this is a move to make sure the company has the leadership in the right places and focused on the right areas," said David C. Stumpf, an analyst at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc.
Separately, CCB named a new chief financial officer. Robert L. Savage Jr., a CCB senior vice president handling asset and liability management, will take responsibility for finance and accounting as well as funds management. The CFO duties had previously been handled by chief executive officer Ernest C. Roessler.
