CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jay Everette watched as a pair of workers unbolted the last Wachovia sign, leaving an empty space beneath the new Wells Fargo name and laying to rest a brand born in North Carolina 130 years ago.
A 16-year bank veteran, he oversaw the creation of the familiar blue-and-green logo after Wachovia Corp. and First Union Corp. merged.
When I see the sign come down, it's bittersweet, Everette said Thursday. But I see it as more of a celebration than a sad thing. I'm ready to move forward.
The conversion to Wells Fargo & Co. wraps up today and Monday, three years after the San Francisco bank snapped up Charlotte's Wachovia as it verged on collapse. At branches acrossNorth Carolina, temporary Wachovia banners fell to reveal red-and-yellow Wells signs, bankers navigated the new systems they'd trained on for months and customers encountered new product names and fees.
Branches closed today will open under the new name Monday, the same day most online customers will begin using the new website.
The N.C. switch is the last step of the largest banking merger in U.S. history. It's also the end of a soaring and then troubled chapter in Charlotte's history, when two banking titans battled and built before swooning during the financial crisis.
Some in Charlotte still mourn the loss of a corporate headquarters, a hometown company that became one of Charlotte's biggest employers and most important corporate citizens. Others, though, say the deal worked out for the best: Wells Fargo employs about the same number of workers in Charlotte as Wachovia did, has ramped up its charitable giving and has kept many of the promises it made in 2008.
I think Charlotteans are still holding their breath, but hopeful, said historian Tom Hanchett of Charlotte's Levine Museum of the New South. The city's evolving role in the global banking economy looks like it will continue to be good for us.
Wachovia was founded in Winston-Salem in 1879, and its headquarters moved to Charlotte after First Union absorbed the bank in 2001, bringing the city more high-paying jobs and adding muscle to its growing finance sector.
Wachovia grew into a national giant, gobbling up smaller banks across the country. Meanwhile, in the nation's second-largest banking capital, salaries soared, high-end homes were built and upscale shops and restaurants opened, vying for a share of the growing wealth.
Then the financial crisis hit. Wachovia, battered by loan losses from its 2006 Golden WestFinancial acquisition, fell swiftly, scooped up first by Citigroup Inc. before Wells Fargo agreed to buy the bank in the fall of 2008 for $15 billion.
Shareholders at the time argued the deal undervalued a company that was worth nearly $60 per share a few years earlier, and city leaders feared massive layoffs and dwindling local power.
Some of those worries materialized. In 2009, the bank sent layoff notices to nearly 550 uptown workers. More recently, Wells Fargo announced plans to slash 1,900 mortgage jobs nationwide, including 310 in the Carolinas.
Most of Wachovia's top leaders left, too. Wells Fargo's 15-member board of directors now includes just three former Wachovia directors. And while all but one of Wachovia's top-tier executives were once based in Charlotte, Wells Fargo now has just one, Wachovia veteran David Carroll, who answers directly to chief executive John Stumpf.
As the merger progressed, the Wachovia brand began to fade. In Charlotte, for instance, the bank changed the names of its uptown towers and even phased out the voice of Charlotte radio personality Mike Collins, which greeted customers in automated messages, steering them instead to a new Wells Fargo number.
Yet amid the losses came a sense among employees, shareholders and city leaders that things could have been much worse.
Wells Fargo now employs between 20,000 and 21,000 in Charlotte, roughly the same as Wachovia at its peak, Charlotte region President Kendall Alley said.
The bank has also stationed leaders for retail banking, commercial banking, corporate communications and wealth management in Charlotte, upholding its 2008 declaration that the city would be the headquarters for the combined company's East Coast retail and commercial and corporate banking business.
And Wells Fargo has ramped up its philanthropic giving, donating about $7 million a year in theCharlotte area - up from the average $5 million Wachovia gave annually, said Everette, Wells' community affairs manager.
That money primarily benefits education and community development but also arts and culture and health and human services, he said. On Oct. 29, the bank is hosting a Community Celebration that features free admission to uptown museums, live art demonstrations and an outdoor concert.
Hanchett, the historian, said Charlotte residents took pride in First Union and Wachovia's
innovations and ambition, but even more, it was neighbors serving neighbors.
With Wells Fargo, that neighbor connection to the corporate decision-makers is gone, and much missed, he said. But Wells seems to be making a concerted effort to act neighborly.
Ronnie Bryant, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Partnership, recalls a 2008 conference call with a dozen or so local and state leaders and Stumpf, centered around jobs and community involvement.
I've never heard a CEO make such promises that early on, Bryant said. He really committed to this being the East Coast headquarters. They've kept that promise.
Charlotte's finance sector isn't out of the woods yet. The global economy remains unsteady, and the city's other banking giant, Bank of America Corp., has seen its stock price tumble more than 50 percent this year.
Bank of America is in the midst of an efficiency initiative that will eliminate 30,000 jobs over the next few years. Overall, Mecklenburg has lost 5,200 jobs in the finance and insurance sector since the recession began.
And customers are increasingly wary of mergers and fees, with some abandoning Charlotte's big banks for smaller competitors.
Still, Wells Fargo officials expect a smooth transition for employees and customers. And others, from shareholders to former employees, say they're optimistic about the future.
I'm hoping it's the continuation of an era, said Jeremiah Manning, 69, of Kannapolis, who worked at Wachovia and its predecessors for more than three decades before retiring in late 2007.
Charlotte already had the big banks and had a good reputation. I don't see that diminishing.
