Two months after First Federal became South State Bank, another post-bank merger identity is appearing in the Wilmington area: Yadkin Bank.
 
Following the close of VantageSouth’s merger with Yadkin Bank, the legally consolidated company – which will be known as Yadkin Bank – is preparing to roll out its unified brand throughout its footprint, which covers North Carolina and parts of upstate South Carolina.
 
“The legal part of the merger closed July 4,” said Mark DeMarcus, executive vice president and CEO of Yadkin Bank. “Our operational conversion is happening over the [coming] weekend. The name change is officially going through the conversion process right now. On Monday, Sept. 22, VantageSouth branches will reopen as Yadkin Bank.”
 
DeMarcus said that VantageSouth customers have been asking if their accounts will be affected by the merger. Customers won’t see any change, he said.
 
“Nobody has to get a new debit card or change their account number. [The new brand rollout] will be relatively unobtrusive in eastern North Carolina. It’s just the name on top of the building. The employee names don’t change at all,” he said.
 
The merger has created the largest community bank – and the fourth-largest bank – based in North Carolina, officials say. The newly consolidated company has $4 billion in assets and $3.2 billion in deposits, according to Lori Meyer, a Yadkin Bank spokeswoman.
 
Meyer confirmed that the new company will be headquartered in Raleigh, with banking operations based in Statesville. Corporate officers will be based in each location, she said in an email, adding that Yadkin Bank’s operations and technology hub remains in Elkin, the bank’s original home.

Scott Custer, president and CEO of VantageSouth, maintains that role with the new Yadkin Bank. Joe Towell, who was president and CEO of Yadkin Bank, is now the company’s executive chairman, according to the bank’s website.

The choice to unify under the Yadkin Bank moniker stemmed from the longer history of that name, DeMarcus said.
 
“Yadkin Bank has been a local bank for 45 years, and because of its heritage being longer, we went with that," he said. "Yadkin is the name of a county and a river, but it’s not about a region: Yadkin is one of those names that’s somewhat memorable, based on traits our employees exhibit in providing services. It stands for those things we think are important: trust, integrity, local decisioning. We work and live within the communities we serve.”
 
Yadkin Bank opened in Elkin in 1968. Between 2002 and 2009 it acquired four other North Carolina community banks: Main Street Bankshares’ Piedmont Bank, High Country Financial Corp.’s High Country Bank, Cardinal State Bank and American Community Bank.  The company reorganized into a holding company, Yadkin Valley Financial Corp., in 2006.
 
All the banks under the Yadkin Valley Financial Corp. banner took the Yadkin Bank name in 2013, when the holding company also simplified its name to Yadkin Financial Corp.
 
VantageSouth, founded in Burlington in 2005, came into the Wilmington market when it merged in late 2012 with Raleigh-based Crescent State Bank, which had two locations here. A subsequent acquisition of East Carolina Bank in the spring of 2013 gave the bank three additional branches in the market.