Is this what they mean by synergy?

When the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released its annual compilation of banking deposit market share data for the Nashville metro area yesterday, Regions Bank topped the rankings, as expected. AmSouth had been on top for some years, and it has merged with Regions Financial in the past year. The Middle Tennessee units of the two Birmingham, Ala.-based institutions held $6.52 billion in deposits between them as of June 30, 2006.

On June 30 of this year, though, Regions had $6.10 billion in local deposits, representing an 8.7 percent decline for the year. Given that Regions chief Jackson W. Moore, in investor presentations last year, touted what the dominant deposit-share positions of the post-merger Regions in markets such as Nashville would signify for the company's future, the 2.9 percent slide in Regions' market share must be a disappointment.

Regions is the heir to the franchise of First American National Bank, long the dominant player on Nashville's retail banking scene. The other two descendants of Nashville's big three hometown banks of old — Bank of America (successor to Commerce Union) and SunTrust (successor to Third National) — have traded places in the deposit rankings behind Regions' top share of 19.9 percent. B of A rose from third to second place with a 14.8 percent market share as its local deposit base rose by 1.8 percent. SunTrust fell to a 14.2 percent share as deposits fell 3.2 percent.

The big-picture significance of these numbers becomes more apparent when they are compared with figures from 2000, just after AmSouth bought First American to leave Nashville without a large homegrown bank. Regions, B of A and SunTrust, along with banks they have since acquired, controlled 65 percent of Nashville's bank deposits that year. Today, they have 49 percent between them.

Where is the money going? As has been the case for the last couple of years, locally founded banks are devouring big slices of the big banks' share. The locals had a cumulative 21.7 percent of the deposit market in 2005 and 27.1 percent last year. This year, they have 27.8 percent, but that's not counting the former Cumberland Bank unit of Civitas Bankshares, which merged into East Tennessee-based Greenbank in May. Throw in Cumberland's portion, and the total local share rises to 30.6 percent.

Two of the top ten banks in the 2007 rankings, Pinnacle and Tennessee Commerce, were chartered in 2000, while the somewhat older Wilson Bank & Trust is also in the top ten. These three institutions picked up some $617 million in deposits between them in the past year, with Tennessee Commerce seeing a 48.8 percent increase over 2006.

Some of the out-of-towners are holding their own, though. First Tennessee notched a 14.3 percent increase in deposits to place 4th, with a 6.1 percent share of the market. Fifth Third gained 21.8 percent to finish 6th, and relatively new entrant Branch Banking & Trust rose to 15th with a $297 million gain that amounted to a 282 percent rise.

If the reaction to last year's FDIC numbers is any indication, the new figures will spark debates over the usefulness of deposit share as a metric for measuring bank growth. Those who put on a good show in the rankings, however, are likely to view them as a perfectly good qualification for bragging rights.