SunTrust No. 1 in deposits in Atlanta, though lead shrinks

By Paul Donsky

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

After one of the most tumultuous years in Atlanta banking history, a familiar name remains atop a list of the most popular banks in the metro area: SunTrust.

The Atlanta-based bank, the nation’s seventh-largest, held more than 23 percent of the metro area’s bank deposits, according to a new report from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The No. 2 lender by deposits was Wachovia, with a 19 percent share. That’s roughly the same as last year, though the gap between the bank and SunTrust has shrunk from seven percentage points to four. During last fall’s banking crisis, Wachovia was acquired by California-based Wells Fargo. The names of Atlanta branches have yet to change.

SunTrust officials said the decline in market share reflects the bank’s effort to reduce the amount of wholesale “brokered” deposits, which are more expensive and volatile than checking accounts and other kinds of "core" customer deposits. The bank has been targeting those customers for the past year with its "Live Solid. Bank Solid" campaign, helping boost core deposits companywide by 11 percent over the past year, a SunTrust spokesman said.

Bank of America remained the area’s No. 3 bank, with 14 percent of the market’s $114.5 billion of deposits, according to the FDIC. Those are the only three banks of the 150 competing for business in metro Atlanta with market share in the double digits. All but a handful of the other banks have market share below 1 percent.

Since the FDIC’s last deposit report came out in 2008, 24 Georgia banks have failed amid huge losses in the collapsed real estate market. Most were tiny lenders, though the list includes Integrity Bank, last year’s 11th largest bank, and Georgian Bank, which made No. 9 on this year's list, only to fail a few weeks later.

SunTrust also tops the list of the most popular banks in Georgia, holding 17 percent of the state's deposits. Wachovia is No. 2 followed by Bank of America.

Deposit market share in metro Atlanta as of June 30, 2009.

Bank                                   deposits in market         market share (% change from ‘08)

SunTrust                              $26.8 billion                     23% (-3%)

Wachovia                            $21.6 billion                    19% (0%)

Bank of America               $16.2 billion                    14% (1%)

BB&T                                     $6.1 billion                         5% (0%)

Bank of North Georgia   $4.6 billion                         4% (1%)