Hugh Mc Coll - NCNB, Nationsbank and Bank of America

NCNB, Nationsbank and Bank of America

In 1960, a year after McColl joined American Commercial Bank, the bank joined Greensboro's Security National Bank, becoming North Carolina National Bank. Vigorously competitive, McColl deployed a methodical, military approach to transforming the small regional bank, via incremental acquisitions and mergers, into NationsBank and ultimately Bank of America.

McColl became President of NCNB in 1974 at age 39, and CEO of NCNB in 1983 — after the bank purchased Lake City, Florida-based First National Bank of Lake City (1982). NCNB then purchased First RepublicBank Corporation of Dallas, Texas from the FDIC (1988) and acquired over 200 thrifts and community banks, many through the Resolution Trust program (1989 to 1992). In 1991, after acquiring Atlanta-based C&S/Sovran Corp., and becoming NationsBank, the institution purchased in succession: Maryland National Corporation (1992), Chicago Research and Trading Group (1993), BankSouth (1995), St. Louis-based Boatmen's Bancshares (1996), Jacksonville, Florida based Barnett Bank (1997) and Montgomery Securities (1997).

In April 1998, under McColl's direction, NationsBank and San Francisco-based BankAmerica merged, creating Bank of America, headquartered in Charlotte. Among other later acquisitions, Bank of America in 2004 purchased FleetBoston Financial, thus ultimately holding the country's oldest bank charter (1784).

Strategically, McColl blunted opposition to the bank mergers and acquisitions by pledging in advance billion in loans for low-income neighborhoods, particularly with the creation of Nationsbank and Bank of America. During the financial crisis of 2008, after McColl's retirement, Bank of America was dubbed "too big to fail" and received $45 billion in federal government funds.