BB&T CORP

BB&T Corp, which stands for Branch Banking & Trust, is one of the largest financial services holding companies in the U.S. The company is based out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and can trace its history back to 1872 when Alpheus Branch and Thomas Jefferson Hadley founded a merchant bank, Branch and Hadley. Alpheus Branch would buy out Hadley’s shares in 1887 and the company would be renamed Branch and Company, Bankers. The company would continue to expand, changing its name to Branch Banking and Trust Company in 1913, and, despite some setback as the public lost its faith in banks during the crash of 1929, continued to increase its presence. BB&T Corp would experience unprecedented growth in the 1950s, through both organic growth and mergers and acquisitions that would allow the bank to expand into new offices. During that time, the corporation would be able to exceed a third of a billion in assets with a total of 60 offices. By 1994, BB&T Corp would have over $10 billion in total assets with over 250 offices in 138 cities. In 1995, the company would merge with National Corporation to create a national network of over 400 branches. The company currently operates through six major segments including Community Banking, Residential Mortgage Banking, Dealer Financial Services, Specialized Lending, Insurance Services, and Financial Services. BB&T Corp now has over 1,800 financial centers with over 33,400 employees. The company is headed by Chairman and CEO Kelly S. King and holds over $184 billion in total assets. BB&T Corp invests most heavily in the finance sector, which alone makes up over a third of its total asset allocations, and also invests in the information technology, health care, consumer staples, consumer discretionary, industrials, and energy sectors, among other sectors to a lesser degree, in order of decreasing allocation.