The Roanoker - March/April 2015 - 37

bank with the size and reach that Virginians haven't
seen in nearly 15 years," says CEO William Beale.
* Valley Bank has been sold to North Carolina Bank
(NCB), leaving HomeTown Bank as the lone Roanokeowned bank still headquartered here. The merger created $5 billion in assets.
* Credit unions are growing at an impressive rate,
threatening community banks with their tax-exempt
status and continuing to offer an alternative to small
investors and businesses. Still, they are to big banking,
what cable TV news viewership is to network news: a
shadow operation.
When Dalhouse's former employer, Dominion
Bankshares, was sold to First Union in 1991, it had 56
percent of the market's deposits, says Dalhouse, and
nine other banks in the valley had the other 44 percent.
He says Wells Fargo ("which is three or four owners
removed from Dominion") has 21 percent these days.
"They've lost more than half of their share" in an intensely competitive and fragmented market.
Dalhouse is tough on the big banks and their Roanoke relationship: "The most dramatic development
is that Bank of America has left town. SunTrust has
closed its headquarters here and has a skeleton operation. BofA, Wells Fargo and SunTrust have made it clear
that they are not interested in most of the accounts
available in the Roanoke area." They would argue to
the counter, though their argument would be arguable.
Dalhouse says he became interested in starting a
community bank (HomeTown) while listening to former First Union President Ben Jenkins say his bank
"couldn't make any money on accounts of less than
$100,000. I thought, 'That presents a hell of an opportunity'" for creation of an alternate source for those loans.
The Bank of North Carolina's purchase of Valley
Bank created a value of $5 billion in assets for the two
banks. HomeTown Bank, by comparison, had $418
million in assets in September of 2014 and Freedom
First Federal Credit Union $355 million in assets.
The declining interest of some of the bigger banks
has resulted in HomeTown Bank "opening more accounts in the last six months than ever before," says
Dalhouse. "Valley Bank has gotten its share, too." Freedom First's Paul Phillips says that credit unions have
benefitted, as well.
Dalhouse believes the small banks have a distinct
local advantage: "It's about availability, responsiveness,
being friendly. Loan committees meet several times a
week. We're custodians of the community's cash reserves." There are 86 community banks in Virginia and
100 total banks headquartered in the commonwealth,
according to the Virginia Bankers Association. Roanoke has 70 bank locations in the valley (topbanklocations.com/virginia/roanoke-banks/).
Changes in big-bank leadership, says Dalhouse, have
THE

R OANOKER.COM

BB&T has nine bank locations and a communications center in the Roanoke Valley.

The banking landscape in the
Roanoke Valley has been at a
roiling boil for some time now.
It has nearly boiled over in the
past 18 months.
had a disruptive effect on community activities. Big
banks "are not making the contributions they once
made" because of executives' movement from city
to city. "If a non-profit gets $1,000 from a large bank
these days, that's huge" and "there is not the motivation [among executives] to be a part of the community
there once was."
John Francis, executive VP of First Citizens Bank,
says growth and change are nothing new, and that "consolidation is not new ... what is new is the very small
number of new banks being formed nationally, which
I believe was only two or three over the last two years."
"While the banking landscape has changed notably
in Roanoke over the last year," he says, "there have been
many periods of intense change over the years. For
example, when I started in banking, I came to work
for the original Bank of Virginia, which became Signet
Bank, then spun off what became Capital One. What
remained of Signet was ultimately acquired by First
Union, then became Wachovia, and finally Wells Fargo.
"By far, the most significant change in Roanoke
banking remains the sale of the former Dominion
Bankshares, in my opinion. The recent developments
MARCH/APRIL 2015

http://www.topbanklocations.com/virginia/roanoke-banks/ http://www.topbanklocations.com/virginia/roanoke-banks/ http://www.THEROANOKER.COM

The Roanoker - March/April 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - March/April 2015