Upstate counties, by the balance sheet

Greenville County's banking environment "most competitive" in state

OCTOBER 14, 2010 11:29 a.m. (0)

Greenville County holds onto its position as South Carolina’s richest and most competitive banking environment by deposits and banking offices, according to the FDIC’s 2010 summary of market share.

Spartanburg County was fourth in deposits with $4.81 billion, a gain of $600 million, which increased the county’s share of the state deposit market from 6 percent to 6.9 percent. It has 80 banking offices.

Greenville led in deposits with $10.46 billion, down slightly from $10.54 billion reported in the FDIC’s 2009 report. The county’s share of the market declined from 15.10 percent to 14.88 percent.  The number of banking offices remained at 170.  Continue reading...

 

State agencies misuse credit cards

Right now no one's watching  your state government

JANUARY 27, 2011 3:36 p.m. (0)

Turns out some state employees haven’t been handled state-issued and taxpayer-paid credit cards well.

Some charged items in violation of state policy such as gift cards, hotel rooms and meals, according to a review by the South Carolina Legislative Audit Council.

Some exceeded the state-imposed limit of $2,500 for an individual purchase and others divided the cost of an item to circumvent the limit. In addition, blocks on certain types of merchants such as ABC stores that are required by state policy were not always in place.  Continue reading...

 

Minus Three Equals Plus Three

Palmetto Bancshares institutes stock split

JUNE 30, 2011 11:55 a.m. (0)

Palmetto Bancshares is instituting a one for four reverse stock split to quadruple its per share price as “one of the final steps to listing our common stock on the NASDAQ stock exchange,” Samuel L. Erwin, chief executive officer, announced.

The stock split, which was effective one minute before midnight Tuesday, reduces the number of Palmetto’s outstanding shares from 50.9 million to 12.7 million.  It was expected to produce a corresponding increase in the bid price of common stock from $2.60 to $10.40.

To qualify for NASDAQ, Palmetto has to maintain a bid price of at least $4 per share.  Continue reading...

 

Palmetto Bank makes growth plans

Some cuts necessary to gain strength in market

JANUARY 5, 2012 1:59 p.m. (0)

With the economy and banking income slow to recover, Palmetto Bank is getting smaller to dig out of its post-recession hole and put itself in a position to get bigger when times get better.

The Greenville-based bank is unloading fringe branches, consolidating others, cutting staffing and outsourcing some back office functions. Its employment level will be reduced to where it was 12 years ago.

The bank said the economies annually will add about $6.1 million to its bottom line, although that will be offset by a one-time charge of $1.1 million in the last quarter of 2011 and the first of this year.  Continue reading...