DRAWING DOWN.(North Carolina banks)(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)

For more than a decade, the mergers that begat megabanks spurred creation of little ones. That era is coming to an end.

In the '90s, Winston-Salem saw the upside of bank-industry consolidation. Already home to Wachovia, the state's third-largest bank, the city began to gain ground on Charlotte as a banking hub. In 1992, Southern National Corp., then sixth-largest, moved its headquarters there from Lumberton. Three years later, Wilson-based BB&T, the state's fourth-largest bank, merged with Southern National, and the new bank chose Winston as its headquarters city.

Since then, BB&T has increased its assets sixfold, partly by buying United Carolina Bank, then eighth-largest, in 1997. Ten years ago, BB&T was one-fourth Wachovia's size. At the end of last year, it was four-fifths as large -- and gaining.

BB&T remains fourth on BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA'S annual ranking of independent Tar Heel banks and thrifts -- once ranked by assets, now by revenues. But the wannabe banking hub is no more. The city lost Wachovia in September when it was bought by Charlotte-based First Union. Wachovia's unusual name -- it comes from the Wachovia tract, settled by the Moravians -- will survive because First Union agreed to take it. But Wachovia's headquarters -- in Winston-Salem since 1879 -- will move to Charlotte.

So the Big Four have become the Big Three. But really, to include any other North Carolina bank in the same tier as Bank of America is an act of charity. In 2000, it had 52% more assets than all other Tar Heel banks and thrifts combined.

History says a wedding like Wachovia and First Union's will beget community banks, led by bankers convincec they can be more neighborly, more rooted in small towns than the big boys. These bankers will try to snatch customers from the giants by painting them as too big to care about local folks. That's what MountainBank in Hendersonville and American Community Bank in Monroe are aiming to do. They moved the most places in the annual bank ranking from last year to this year. MountainBank went from No. 64 to No. 36, American Community from No. 76 to No. 52. (See story on page 44.)

But those two may be among the last of a breed. Little banks aren't selling for the big premiums they used to, robbing them of their allure to investors. That kil's an incentive to form them. And as big banks provide more products, it's tougher for little banks to compete. They lack the big banks' economies of scale.

That's one reason the state is eeing a waning number of bank start-ups. Of the 110 companies on this year's ranking, nine began in 2000. Three were started in 2001, and it's unlikely there will be another. Banks need two to six months to launch, and by mid-September, the state Banking Commission had no applications.

 RANKING TAR HEEL BANKS    Rank                                     City '01   '00    1    1   Bank of America               Charlotte   2    2   First Union [1]               Charlotte   3    3   Wachovia [2]                  Winston-Salem   4    4   BB&T [3]                      Winston-Salem   5    5   First Citizens BancShares     Raleigh   6    7   First Charter                 Charlotte   7    8   Bank of Granite               Granite Falls   8   10   Fidelity Bancshares           Fuquay-Varina   9   11   First Bancorp [4]             Troy  10    9   LSB Bancshares [5]            Lexington  11   12   Southern Bancshares           Mount Olive  12   17   Peoples Bancorp of N.C. [6]   Newton  13   15   FNB Financial Services [7]    Reidsville  14   19   FNB [8]                       Asheboro  15   21   First South Bancorp [9]       Washington  16   16   High Point Bank               High Point  17   13   Clyde Savings Bank [10]       Clyde  18   18   First National Bank           Shelby  19   14   Piedmont Federal S&L          Winston-Salem  20   20   Yadkin Valley Bank and Trust  Elkin  21   22   Macon Bancorp                 Franklin  22   24   F&M Financial [11]            Granite Quarry  23   23   Asheville Savings Bank        Asheville  24   26   1st State Bancorp [12]        Burlington  25   34   Southern Community Bank            & Trust                       Winston-Salem  26   25   Cooperative Bankshares        Wilmington                                                 2000 Rank                                        revenue [*] '01   '00                                (in millions)    1    1   Bank of America                 $32,956.0   2    2   First Union [1]                  14,368.0   3    3   Wachovia [2]                      4,447.0   4    4   BB&T [3]                          2,794.7   5    5   First Citizens BancShares           567.5   6    7   First Charter                       138.5   7    8   Bank of Granite                      44.7   8   10   Fidelity Bancshares                  43.7   9   11   First Bancorp [4]                    43.4  10    9   LSB Bancshares [5]                   39.8  11   12   Southern Bancshares                  30.6  12   17   Peoples Bancorp of N.C. [6] …