Wachovia creates general banking division.

Following an industry trend toward increased centralization, Wachovia Corp. has created a new division to manage retail and home market commercial operations in all three of its state hanks.

The new general banking division will be based in Atlanta and will be run by G. Joseph Prendergast, currently chairman and CEO of Wachovia Bank of Georgia.

Mr. Prendergast will retain that title but his responsibilities have been broadened to include strategic coordination of Wachovia's banks in North and South Carolina.

Wachovia's holding company, which has $38 billion of assets, is based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"All we've done here is taken the three banks and put me in the position of trying to facilitate the coordination of an agenda," Mr. Prendergast said.

"It's just to make sure, given that we are now in three states, that we're optimizing across the franchise, whether it's on the expense side or the revenue-generation side," he added.

In creating a general banking division to supervise its retail operations across state lines, Wachovia is following an industrywide trend.

Charlotte-based NationsBank Corp., for example, has had a general bank for several years. Wachovia preferred to leave more autonomy in its separately chartered state banks, until now.

"We feel very good about where the three banks are independently," Mr. Prendergast said. "This is just an opportunity to see if we can take it to a higher level by spending a little more time together."

NationsBank has said it would take advantage of recently passed national interstate banking legislation to consolidate its separately chartered state subsidiaries into one unit. But Wachovia is still studying that issue, according to Mr. Prendergast.

"I personally don't have an inclination to move in that direction because I think we can get the efficiencies we need to get without doing that," he said.

Mr. Prendergast, 49, has been with Wachovia 21 years. His numerous assignments include six years of running Wachovia Corporate Services Inc., which handles national and regional large corporate lending. He was given command of the Georgia bank in January 1993.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER