Over the past several years, the Military Cutoff/Eastwood Road area has attracted significant banking activity, measured by the amount of deposits at each bank branch in New Hanover County.
 
An analysis of branch-by-branch deposit totals as of June 30, 2018, the most recent available through the FDIC website, shows that only two of New Hanover County’s 11 largest banks (by local market share) show their largest concentration of deposits in their downtown locations. Those are BB&T, which has a banking center on North Third Street, and Wells Fargo, also with a North Third Street center.
 
In June, Bank of America announced it would close its downtown branch as of late January 2020. FDIC data shows that this location, on North Third Street, lags behind Bank of America’s five other New Hanover County branches in terms of deposits.
 
FDIC data shows that, for most other banks in that top 10 listing, the busiest branch is located near Mayfaire. Notable exceptions are Live Oak Bank and PNC Bank.
 
Live Oak – No. 1 in market share – has only one branch, and that’s in the midtown Wilmington area. Live Oak Bank operates digitally, lending money and providing deposit services to customers nationwide. But those deposits are shown as “in-market” because the bank has only one location – in Wilmington. PNC’s busiest branch in terms of deposits is on South 17th Street.
 
Looking at the smaller banks in New Hanover County, the geographic concentration is even more striking. Seven of these nine institutions have only one branch in the county; six of them have chosen to locate that branch along Military Cutoff Road. The exception is TD Bank, whose branch is near UNCW on South College Road.
 
All deposits for FDIC-insured institutions in New Hanover County top $7.7 billion.
 
In Pender County, the Burgaw area is served by two banks: First Citizens Bank and FNB, with a combined total of $124.7 million in deposits in those branches. Eastern Pender County’s Hampstead area is served by twice as many banks and their combined deposits total 50% more – at nearly $189 billion – than those in Burgaw.
 
Pender County’s total FDIC-insured deposits come to roughly $314 million.
 
Brunswick County’s banking activity is more evenly distributed throughout the county, with slight concentrations in Leland, Southport and Shallotte. BB&T has the county’s largest share of in-market deposits, for a total of nearly $1.1 billion among its 11 branches. Of those, the Southport branch has the greatest deposit amount, at about $192 million.
 
Second in terms of in-county market share is First Citizens Bank, with $197 million in total deposits among its four Brunswick branches. Its Southport branch, like BB&T’s, has the highest level of deposits.
 
In fact, Southport has the greatest share of Brunswick County’s combined $2.1 billion in FDIC-insured bank deposits, at almost $444 million, or roughly 21%. Next is Shallotte, at a combined $361+ million (16%) and Leland, at $336.5 million (15%).