S.C bankers lament brain drain.

South Carolina bankers are complaining that the state is suffering a brain drain as home-grown institutions are acquired by North Carolina banks.

Ever since interstate banking legislation was adopted in 1984, South Carolina has become a stamping ground for the much larger and aggressive North Carolina banks. In many instances, top executives of South Carolina institutions have been transferred to Charlotte or Winston-Salem.

Bankers say the talent drain not only hurts communities, which depend on these institutions for financial support, but has also decreased the pool of potential state leaders

|Financial Constituency' Lost

"We have lost our financial constituency," said Douglas Yeates, formerly the president of a community bank based in Columbia and now an executive with a computer software firm.

"My peers are all gone," added Robert V. Royall Jr., chief executive of Columbia-based NBSC Corp., who retired from banking briefly from Citizens and Southern Corp. after it merged with a regional bank from Virginia.

Lloyd I. Hendricks, executive vice president of the South Carolina Bankers Association, doesn't see a problem

We've got good leadership," said Mr. Hendricks, who was senior vice president and regional executive with Southern Bank and Trust in Columbia, S.C., until it was acquired by First Union Corp. in 1986. "I think we are very strong. I don't see it as a brain drain."

More Banks in the State

Mr. Hendricks said the number of bank in the state has increased Since 1986 there have been 23 start-ups

In 1983, Mr. Royall and Mr. Hendricks served on a committee to study interstate banking legislation. Mr. Royal said the feeling at the time was that South Carolina should adopt the legislation

"No one expected two of the top three banks in South Carolina to merge. Had that really been a possibility, we would have had thought twice."

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