. . . .BULLETIN. . . .BULLETIN. . . .BULLETIN. . . .BULLETIN. . . . STATE OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF BANKING AND FINANCE 2990 Brandywine Road, Suite 200 Atlanta, Georgia 30341-5565 DAVID G. SORRELL, ACTING COMMISSIONER Phone: (770) 986-1633 Fax: (770) 986-1655 Internet Address: http://www.gadbf.org April 30, 2003 The following is a summary of official action taken on applications by State Financial Institutions under Chapter 7-1 of the Code of Georgia and petitions for Certificate of Incorporation of Financial Institutions and other matters of interest during the month of April 2003. IN THIS ISSUE: Department Memo on Assessing Liquidity in Community Financial Institutions 1 APPLICATIONS FOR NEW FINANCIAL INSTITUTION FINANCIAL INSTITUTION Midtown Bank & Trust Company 712 West Peachtree Street Atlanta, GA 30308 Fulton County CAPITALIZATION APPROVAL DATE $ 10,500,000 Pending BEGIN BUSINESS DATE Community Bank of Georgia 692 West Parker Street Baxley, GA 31513 Appling County $ 5,000,000 Pending Mountain Heritage Bank US Highway 441 South and US Highway 76 East Clayton, GA 30525 Rabun County $ 7,000,000 Pending Freedom Bank of Georgia 3165 Maysville Road Commerce, GA 30329 Jackson County $ 7,500,000 Pending Mountain State Bank 6602 Highway 53 East Dawsonville, GA 30534 Dawson County $ 10,025,169 12 -09-2002 04 -15-2003 Local Bank of Middle Georgia 532-550 North Davis Drive Warner Robins, GA 31093 Houston County $ 6,000,000 Pending PREVIOUS NAME Dalton Whitfield Bank FINANCIAL INSTITUTION CONVERSIONS CONVERTED TO FSG Bank, N.A. Dalton Whitfield County APPROVAL DATE Pending EFFECTIVE DATE Fidelity National Bank Fidelity Bank Norcross Gwinnett County 04-16-2003 APPLICATIONS FOR DISSOLUTION FINANCIAL INSTITUTION AmTrade International Bank of Georgia Atlanta, GA 30309 APPROVAL DATE Bank is in Receivership Click here for further information EFFECTIVE DATE APPLICATIONS TO ESTABLISH A BRANCH OFFICE 2 FINANCIAL INSTITUTION Integrity Bank Alpharetta BRANCH OFFICE Cobb Branch Office 4345 Atlanta Road Smyrna, GA 30080 Cobb County SunTrust Bank Atlanta Greenspring Branch Office 2825 Smith Avenue Baltimore, MD 21209 Baltimore County SunTrust Bank Atlanta Braemar Safeway In -Store Branch Office 12821 Braemar Village Plaza Bristow, VA 20136 Prince William County SunTrust Bank Atlanta Perry Hall Square Branch Office 4310 Ebenezer Road Perry Hall, MD 21236 Baltimore County SunTrust Bank Atlanta St. John's Branch Office 481 Prosperity Lake Drive St. Augustine, FL 32095 St. John's County SunTrust Bank Atlanta The Shoppes at Eagles Landing Branch Office Eagles Landing Parkway & Country Club Drive Stockbridge, GA 30281 Henry County SunTrust Bank Atlanta 1275 K Street Branch Office 1275 K Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 First Bank of Dalton Dalton Cleveland Highway Branch Office 2518 Cleveland Highway, Suite 15 Dalton, GA 30721 Whitfield County Northeast Georgia Bank Lavonia Commerce Branch Office 30990 Highway 441 South Commerce, GA 30529 Banks County First Bank of the South Lawrenceville Snellville Branch Office 2168 Scenic Highway Snellville, GA 30078 Gwinnett County 3 APPROVAL DATE 04-14 -2003 BEGIN BUSINESS DATE 04-10 -2003 Pending 04-29 -2003 04-21 -2003 04-17 -2003 Pending 04-09 -2003 04-30 -2003 04-25 -2003 FINANCIAL INSTITUTION The Peachtree Bank Duluth APPLICATIONS TO CHANGE LOCATION From: To: CHANGE LOCATION OF Sugar Hill Branch Office 1400 Buford Highway, Suite E-4 Sugar Hill GA 30518 Gwinnett County Lawrenceville Branch Office 185 Gwinnett Drive Lawrenceville GA 30045 Gwinnett County APPROVAL DATE 04-09-2003 EFFECTIVE DATE PREVIOUS NAME The Blackshear Bank Blackshear NOTICE OF CHANGE IN NAME NEW NAME PrimeSouth Bank APPROVAL EFFECTIVE DATE DATE 04-17-2003 04-21 -2003 PROPOSED NAME 1st Georgia Banking Company APPLICATIONS FOR RESERVATION OF A NAME COUNTY Heard County APPLICANT Mr. Robert J. Burnstein, CPA 8010 Roswell Road, Suite 220 Atlanta, GA 30350 Central Bank of Georgia Schley County Mr. John B. Kline, Principal Mauldin & Jenkins Post Office Box 724888 Atlanta, GA 31139-1888 Entertainers Bank & Trust Fulton County Mr. John B. Kline, Principal Mauldin & Jenkins, LLC Post Office Box 724888 Atlanta, GA 31139-1888 V.I.S.I.O.N. Credit Union Lowndes County Mr. Ernest J. Usher, Jr., Organizer Usher Business Enterprises, Inc. Post Office Box 188 Lakeland, GA 31635 FINANCIAL INSTITUTION MERGERS FINANCIAL INSTITUTION (SURVIVOR) First-Citizens Bank and Trust Company of South Carolina Columbia, SC MERGED INSTITUTION First Bank and Trust Carnesville APPROVAL DATE 01 -29-2003 EFFECTIVE DATE 04-01 -2003 First-Citizens Bank and Trust Company of South Carolina Columbia, SC The Bank of Toccoa Toccoa 01 -29-2003 04-01 -2003 Main Street Bank Covington 4 First Colony Bank Alpharetta Pending APPLICATIONS TO BECOME A BANK HOLDING COMPANY AND/OR TO ACQUIRE VOTING STOCK OF A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION BANK HOLDING COMPANY Piedmont Bancshares, Inc. Atlanta, GA FORMATIONS ONLY TO ACQUIRE Piedmont Bank of Georgia Atlanta, GA APPROVAL DATE Pending Central Georgia Banking Company Cochran, GA State Bank of Cochran Cochran, GA Pending Community Banks of Georgia, Inc. Jasper, GA Community Bank of Pickens County Jasper, GA American Trust Bancorp Roswell, GA American Trust Bank (In Organization) Roswell, GA CITY Decatur Smyrna Norcross Macon Smyrna Smyrna Norcross Macon Lawrenceville Byron Moultrie CHECK CASHER LICENSES ISSUED APPLICANT NAME TRADE NAME Albert Um Enterprises, Inc. Ken & Chris Package CB Solutions, Inc. Dineromax Hari Om, Inc. Induk Enterprises, Inc. Kim, Yuun RTS Services Dineromax Quik Shop NBI Check Cashing Cash Check Plus Moneymax, Inc. Moneymax Patel, Rajnikant Tasta, Inc. Fort Hawkins Package Store Ted's Check Cashing UMIYA WORLD, LLC B's Bottle Shoppe Varahi Corporation R&R Quick Mart 04-17-2003 Pending **** NOTICES **** Department Memo on Assessing Liquidity in Community Financial Institutions The Department has issued a memo to its examiners regarding assessing liquidity in community financial institutions. The memo is available in its entirety on the Department's website at: http://www.ganet.org/dbf/pdfdoc/LiquidityMemo.pdf The Department has noted over the past several years that there has been a steady and significant decline in the levels of core liquidity being maintained by community banks. There are a number of factors contributing to this decline, the most significant of which are the intense margin pressures that have been brought to bear against banks and material changes in the sources of bank funding, with greater amounts of short and medium-term borrowing being used to fund bank operations. These trends have combined to push liquidity to levels that are far below historical levels of liquidity. For the most part, financial institutions have been able to reduce liquidity levels without experiencing undue safety and soundness problems but the question remains: what level of minimum core liquidity needs to be maintained in a bank to insure that liquidity does not present a safety and soundness concern and what should be the policy of the Department is dealing with banks that drop below such a level? Historically, the approach of the Department has been to establish a fixed threshold and state that any bank that fell below this threshold was to be criticized and placed on a program of liquidity enhancement. Such an approach is not realistic in the current liquidity environment where a financial institution may have ready access to secondary sources of liquidity, may have cyclical liquidity demands that increase or decrease at different times of the year and which may have improved monitoring and management procedures to manage their liquidity at 5 lower levels. In spite of such mitigating issues, the Department has observed that there are certain levels of core liquidity, below which a bank may begin to experience problems in meeting its day to day liquidity requirements including cash letter requirements, deposit withdrawals and lending requests. It has been the observation of the Department that when core liquidity drops below 10%, such problems may become more prevalent, if secondary sources of liquidity are not available to provide liquidity support. While this level of liquidity is not considered to be a "bright-line" minimum, bank management has a rebutable presumption to overcome regarding liquidity adequacy when core liquidity drops below this level. Go to the link on the Department's website noted above to read the memo in its entirety. BACK TO TOP 6