First Union - History

History

First Union Corporation was founded as Union National Bank on June 2, 1908, a small banking desk in the lobby of a Charlotte hotel. by H.M. Victor.

The bank merged with First National Bank and Trust Company of Asheville in 1958 to become First Union National Bank of North Carolina. In 1964, the bank added Cameron-Brown company, a mortgage banking and insurance firm.

First Union Corporation was incorporated in 1967. As part of a corporate reorganization in 1968, a predecessor of First Union National Bank and First Union Mortgage Corporation, the mortgage banking firm acquired in 1964 became subsidiaries of First Union Corp creating the structure the bank utilized until the 2001 merger.

Starting in 1985, with the Supreme Court decision upholding regional interstate banking legislation, First Union focused on an aggressive growth strategy and from 1985 through the merger with Wachovia in 2001, First Union completed over 90 banking-related acquisitions, 50 of which were completed between 1985 and 1995. Atlantic National Bank of Jacksonville, Florida merged with First Union in 1985.

In February 1986, Cameron-Brown Co., a $10 billion mortgage banker created in 1955 from the merger of Fidelity Bond & Mortgage Co. (started in 1946 in Raleigh) and Brown-Hamel Mortgage Co. of Greensboro, changed its name to First Union Mortgage Corp. to match its parent company.

In a deal announced in June 1992, First Union acquired South Carolina Federal Corp., making First Union the third largest bank in South Carolina by deposits, but also giving North Carolina-based banks the majority of financial institution assets in South Carolina, something that had never happened in any state since regional banking began in 1986.