By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher
APRIL 10, 2018 | Reports last week that Brand Bank of Lawrenceville would be bought by a Mississippi bank in one way cut the link to old-time banking in Gwinnett County. After all, Brand Bank was the oldest of the locally owned banks in Gwinnett, founded in 1905, and the biggest, with $2.4 billion in assets.
The only remaining Gwinnett banks with local distinctive ties are Gwinnett Community Bank in Duluth, and Piedmont Bank in Peachtree Corners, which have total assets of $277 million and $827 million respectively
Though Renasant Bank will purchase Brand Bank, Bartow Morgan Jr., current president and CEO of Brand Bank, will be the chief commercial banking officer for Renasant Bank system, in charge of all their 180 retail operations. There are seven Brand Bank locations in Gwinnett. Brand Bank has assets of $2.4 billion, while Renasant has assets of $9.8 billion. The sales price is valued at $500 million.
Morgan says that he has been working on completing this merger for the last eight months, finally getting close to the merger details. He says: “I took the deal to all our shareholders 60 days ago. We could not hold out to a fault, and I didn’t want to do something stubborn. When they offer you a big number and say you will be the boss, you have to listen to that.”
Bartow Morgan Jr.
Back during the recent recession, most Georgia banks were fighting closing. Eventually, some stock of Brand Bank was purchased by the Carlyle Group out of Washington, D.C. Later the Stephens interests out of Little Rock also invested in a portion of the Brand stock. However, no one entity had control of the bank stock.
Morgan explains another of the reasons Brand Bank was interested in accepting offers. “No one much goes to local banks any more. With technology, mobile apps, and heavier governmental regulations of banks after 2008, community banks don’t have an ability to work with customers anymore. Banking has become a standard process. We came out of 2008 and watched 100 Georgia banks die, with most of them upside down.
“All this is changing the competitive advantage of the community bank. All banks have to do banking the same way.
“The industry is not going the right direction for really small community banks. Today you need scale and size, There are two breaks in banking operations today, those with about $8-10 billion in assets, and those over $50 billion. The rules are changing, and you don’t want to get caught in no-man’s land between $10-50 billion.”
Robin McGraw, Renasant chairman and CEO, will remain chairman. Mitch Waycaster will become CEO at that time. Mike Dunlap, Brand Bank’s executive vice president and director of commercial banking, will become president of the Georgia Commercial Banking Group for Renasant Bank.
Brand Mortgage will be spun off and be a stand-alone business.
Brand Bank, under Bartow Morgan’s father, Bartow III, was a throwback to old times, for years keeping a pen-and-ink ledger when other banks were adopting computers. Mr. Morgan III had two cane-back chairs in his second-floor office on the Square in Lawrenceville—one for him, and the other for his customer. Once when I wanted a loan to pay for a child’s upcoming college, he asked if I was going to pay him back. I said “Yes,” and he said, “OK.” I protested: “But I didn’t tell you how much I wanted to borrow.”
He replied: “Don’t matter, if you’re going to pay me back!”
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