Fifth Third Bank, which entered the North Carolina market in 2008, is making a push to raise its visibility and client base in the Wilmington area, officials said Monday.

Cincinnati, Ohio-based Fifth Third has expanded its Private Bank staff and scope to serve clients in eastern North Carolina, Eric Housman, senior vice president and Private Bank executive, said Monday. The Raleigh-based Private Bank team now has seven professionals and its clients include area individuals, he said.

The Private Bank is a unit within Fifth Third that serves affluent customers in a holistic way with services ranging from traditional retail banking services to financial planning, trusts and risk management, Housman said, explaining that these services focus on growing, preserving and distributing clients’ assets.

While Fifth Third has no immediate plans for a branch bank in the Wilmington area, said George Dick, head of marketing for Fifth Third in the Carolinas, “as we continue to grow, we look at staffing and geographical locations."

“If you look at the banking industry as a whole, there is a surge in online banking, so there is less need for physical locations, but we are constantly looking at what we’re doing,” he said Monday.

Fifth Third is also engaged in commercial lending statewide, Dick added.
Another service the bank offers is currency processing. Housman explained that a business can lease a small machine that is electronically linked to Fifth Third’s network. The microwave-sized machine stores, records and dispenses its cash as appropriate, eliminating the need for employees to transport the day’s receipts to a bank, or to stop by the bank for needed cash.

Currency processing services have been very popular, Housman added.

He went on to say said that the bank regards Wilmington as an “excellent market. There are a lot of opportunities, which is why we beefed up our [Private Bank] team."

The bank's North Carolina operations are headquartered in Raleigh and include 56 branches, located in the Triangle, metro Charlotte and western North Carolina areas.