South State Bank

South State Bank , based in Columbia, South Carolina, is the largest bank based in South Carolina and a subsidiary of South State Corporation, a bank holding company. As of December 31, 2018, the company had 168 branches in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia.[1]

South State Corporation

Type	Public company
Traded as	NASDAQ: SSB Russell 2000 Index component
Industry	Banking
Founded	January 1, 1934 (1934-01-01) as First National Bank
Headquarters	Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Number of locations	168 branches
Area served	South Carolina North Carolina Georgia Virginia
Key people	Robert R. Horger, Chairman Robert R. Hill, Jr., CEO John C. Pollok, CFO
Services	Financial Services
Net income	$0.178 billion (2018)
Total assets	$14.676 billion (2018)
Total equity	$2.366 billion (2018)
Number of employees	2,602 (2018)
Website	www.southstatebank.com
Footnotes / references [1]

First National Bank began in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1933. In 2002, the bank changed its name to South Carolina Bank and Trust and moved its headquarters to Columbia, South Carolina. As of 2013, 240 people still worked in Orangeburg.[2] SCBT added offices in the Greenville, South Carolina area as well. First National Corp. changed its name to SCBT Financial Corp. in 2003. The bank was South Carolina's fourth largest with $1 billion in assets.[3]

On November 30, 2007, SCBT Financial Corp. completed its acquisition of TSB Financial Corporation and its bank The Scottish Bank, giving SCBT four Charlotte, North Carolina locations and a loan production office in Cornelius, North Carolina.[4] The five locations changed their names to North Carolina Bank and Trust, or NCBT.[5]

In 2013, SCBT Financial Corp. announced a merger with First Financial Holdings of Charleston, started in 1934, which had 66 Carolinas locations and was the third-largest financial institution with headquarters in South Carolina. SCBT had 82 locations in 19 counties in South Carolina, 10 counties in north Georgia, two counties on the Georgia coast and in Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. SCBT president and CEO Robert R. Hill Jr. would remain as CEO, and chair Robert R. Horger would be chair. First Financial president and CEO R. Wayne Hall would become president of the merged company, and First Financial chair Paula Harper Bethea would be vice chair.[2]

The $447 million deal for First Financial was the biggest ever for SCBT Financial, which became the owner of five banks--SCBT; First Federal Bank of Charleston; NCBT of Charlotte, North Carolina; Community Bank & Trust of Cornelia, Georgia; and the Savannah Bank of coastal Georgia. In 2014, SCBT Financial became South State Corporation and in June 2014 SCBT became South State Bank and First Federal did the same in July.[6] The merger added coastal South Carolina branches to the Midlands and Upstate and gave the bank $8 billion in assets. A former Kroger in North Charleston was converted and expanded in the 1980s for First Federal's back office operations, and it was large enough for the merged company, as other tenants moved out when the time came to do so. Also, in August, South State took over 13 Bank of America branches in areas it did not serve.[7]

On January 4, 2017, South State announced completion of a deal valued at about $335 million for Augusta, Georgia-based Southeastern Bank Financial Corp., which gave South State nine Georgia Bank & Trust branches and three Southern Bank & Trust branches in South Carolina.[8]

On April 27, 2017, South State Corp. agreed to acquire Park Sterling Corp. of Charlotte, North Carolina, for $690.8 million.[9] The deal was completed November 30, 2017 with signs changed in April 2018. South State added 43 branches, five in Georgia, 23 in South Carolina, 17 in North Carolina and eight in Virginia.[10]