By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

SunTrust Bank, flush from opening its first two retail branches in downtown Charleston and on Daniel Island, began rolling out in-store branches in local BI-LO supermarkets on April 24.

The first local BI-LO branch opened at the supermarket’s Bees Ferry Road location. Additional in-store branches are in the process of being opened in Summerville, Mount Pleasant and Goose Creek, said Mitchell B. Wright, SunTrust’s vice president for area operations.

SunTrust, which had $179.7 billion in assets and $122 billion in deposits at the end of 2005, announced its intention last November to move aggressively into the Charleston region.

Mark Lattanzio, SunTrust’s president for its Charleston operation, said the Atlanta-based bank will open an additional 16 retail and in-store branches over the next 24 months, more than any other bank that has entered the Charleston market over the past several years.

To staff those branches, SunTrust plans to hire an additional 100 employees, Lattanzio said.

“One thing we believe about the people of Charleston is that they are people who want to bank,” he said.

Unlike its entries into other markets, SunTrust has taken something of a novel approach to Charleston. Never before has it entered a market before buying a bank there first.

Previously, the organization ran only a mortgage banking office in Charleston and a commercial real estate financing office on Daniel Island. Those operations currently employ about 50.

Supermarket banking, on the other hand, has long been a cornerstone of SunTrust’s business plan, Lattanzio said. The bank already operates more than 60 full-service in-store branches in the Upstate under its agreement with BI-LO, a deal that generates foot traffic for both businesses, he said.

In addition, SunTrust has full-service branches in Safeway stores throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and in Publix supermarkets in Florida.

“We also recently completed the conversion of 11 in-store branches in Wal-Mart Supercenters in Florida that had originally been branches of the Community Bank of Florida,” Wright said.

The in-store banks are a critical component of SunTrust’s expansion into the Charleston market because they not only raise the bank’s profile, but also stay open longer than traditional banks do, Lattanzio said.

“We’ll be open in our BI-LO locations 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday,” he said.

Each in-store branch will have a manager and four employees, including loan managers, trained to assist customers with any financial service SunTrust offers.

“We’re talking everything from small business and commercial loans, to wealth management, to opening a money market account,” Wright said. “The only real difference between an in-store branch and a traditional branch is we don’t have a drive-through at the supermarket.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122