Mergers and acquisitions
In 1988, NCNB's assets grew to $60 billion after it bought the failed First Republic Bank Corporation of Dallas, Texas from the FDIC. FirstRepublic, the largest bank in Texas, had entered FDIC receivership after filing bankruptcy in March, and was the largest FDIC bank failure in history.
By that time, NCNB had become associated with "mergers, acquisitions, expansion, integration". From 1989 to 1992, NCNB acquired over 200 thrifts and community banks, many of these through the Resolution Trust program. Favorable terms, with the FDIC assuming most of the loan portfolios and absorbing mark-to-market losses, allowed NCNB to expand profitably, and a cost-cutting culture improved margins. Eventually, NCNB built a branch network stretching from Virginia to Florida, in addition to Texas.
In 1989, NCNB tried to become even more powerful by launching a hostile bid for Citizens & Southern Corporation of Atlanta, which had been the South's biggest bank for much of the 20th century until NCNB passed it. Partly as a defensive measure, C&S merged with Sovran Financial Corporation of Norfolk, Virginia to form C&S/Sovran.
Only two years later, however, C&S/Sovran was nearly brought down by problem loans in the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia market, and was all but forced to merge with NCNB to form NationsBank. This created the largest bank in the Southeast, with assets of $118 billion. The merger allowed NCNB/NationsBank to enter Tennessee and Maryland for the first time. At one stroke, it became a major player in Georgia and Virginia, where it previously had a minimal presence.
