A bank from another state wants to open branches in North and South Carolina over the next five years. The regional head of that bank, Huntington National Bank, says the bank has a lot to be happy about with these plans.
First, both states are in the top 10 for new people moving in and economic growth. Heath Campbell, Huntington’s executive managing director of the Carolinas and based in Charlotte, says that makes the area appealing to any financial services business.
He then says, “There’s a lot of trouble in North and South Carolina with financial services.” The former Truist executive wouldn’t say much about the people he used to work with, but he did say that the Columbus, Ohio-based business sees a job opening here.
Campbell was president of the North Carolina West Region for Charlotte-based Truist, the sixth-largest bank in the country with about $520 billion in assets, until October. “We saw it as an opportunity to bring a culture-rich, people-first organization to the Carolinas, and this was the right time to do it,” he says.
Campbell didn’t answer any questions about Truist, but industry experts and executives of competing lenders have said that the company’s leadership changes and other changes have opened up business possibilities.
As part of a $750 million plan to cut costs, Truist closed about 80 of its roughly 2,000 stores this year and made a lot of changes to its top management.
Huntington is the 24th biggest bank in the United States, and it has about 970 locations in 11 states. Bank of America is the second-largest bank in the United States.
It is based in Charlotte and has more than $3.2 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco and has a big influence in Charlotte. It is ranked third in the country and has more than $1.7 trillion in assets.
He says that Huntington National’s plans to open new bank branches will cost $240 million and add 350 jobs to the more than 200 already working for the company in those two states. By 2025, there will be five stores.
The first one will open in either December or January in a building that used to be a First Third Bank branch in Charlotte’s SouthPark neighborhood. There will also be branches in the South Carolina cities of Charleston and Spartanburg, as well as Raleigh and Winston-Salem.
Campbell says that the exact split between how many jobs and branches will go to each state hasn’t been decided yet. He says that it will depend on the population sizes and economic growth in each state. There are about 10.7 million people living in North Carolina, which is about twice as many as in South Carolina.
Campbell says that Huntington is the second best place in North Carolina for getting Small Business Administration loans. He says that having people see real bank offices will make the bank more well-known in those two states. Huntington opened a regional office in Charlotte last year, and more than 40 people worked there in the middle of the city.
“Being a part of Huntington has shown me that a lot of the same things are true: Midwest values are a great addition to Southern hospitality,” he says.
“I think we have a good chance of being successful in the long run if we earn the trust of our constituents every day,” he says.
Campbell also thinks that Huntington National’s location in North Carolina, especially in Charlotte, which has a lot of banks, is good for them when it comes to hiring people. “I think there is talent in North and South Carolina that we can bring into the Huntington culture,” he says.
People want to move to the Carolinas, which helps the area grow, says Ian Wyatt, head of economics for Huntington who used to work for BofA in Charlotte.
By opening branches in these two states, Huntington will be able to offer all of its services to people in the area, such as insurance, wealth management, and business and industrial banking. The closest Huntington stores are in West Virginia. The company’s main offices are in states from Ohio to Minnesota.
Campbell says that AI will look at data on traffic patterns, demographic trends, and economic activity to decide what kinds of stores Huntington will open.
He says, “We have a lot more information to make better decisions than we did when we built these branches 20 years ago.”