NEW BOOK PUTS VIRGINIA BANKING IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE


	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Nov. 26 -- "During the last decade or
two, the structure of financial institutions in the United States has
experienced as rapid and violent an upheaval as it has known during
the history of the Republic."
	That was written in 1971 by Charles C. Abbott, then dean of
the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business
Administration, in the preface to a study of banking in Virginia from
1962-66, conducted by Paul L. Foster. It applies as well to a new
study, "Banking in Virginia: The Intrastate Period of Expansion,
1962-1986," authored by Foster and Corolyn E. Clark.
	As the banking industry grows more sophisticated and
competitive, and continues to consolidate in billion-dollar deals, it
is useful to consider where the industry has been, as bank employees,
regulators and customers struggle to keep up with where it's going. 
	"Banking in Virginia" looks at the history of banking in the
Old Dominion by tracing the different paths taken by four of
Virginia's largest banks -- United Virginia Bankshares (now Crestar
Bank), Signet Banking Corp. (formerly Bank of Virginia and recently
acquired by First Union), Sovran Financial Corp. (now part of
NationsBank) and Central Fidelity Banks Inc. (recently acquired by
Wachovia Corp).
	Based on discussions with chief executive officers and other
banking leaders, the authors examine the expansion strategies developed 
by these four banks following the enactment of permissive state branching
legislation in 1962.
	The book documents the growth of Virginia banks from 1962,
when the law was first changed to allow statewide branching by merger,
to 1986, by which time interstate banking came on the scene. It also
provides an historical perspective on Virginia banking from colonial
times to the modern era, and explains some of the forces that led to
the 1962 change in Virginia banking law.
	In 1961, there were 301 banks in Virginia, but by 1986, that
number had dropped to 174. The largest bank in the state held deposits
of $386.7 million in 1962, a figure that soared to $8.3 billion in
1986. While the numbers have changed since the completion of this
study, the forces that brought about these changes are still going
strong, making the book relevant for anyone trying to put the
transformation of the country's banking industry into an
understandable, historical context.
	The book was written by Clark and Foster, professors of
accounting and finance, respectively, at St. Joseph's University, with
a foreword by Charles O. Meiburg, the J. Harvie Wilkinson Jr.
Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia's
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. This book,
published by the Darden School Foundation at the University of
Virginia, follows Foster's previous study, a book based on his
doctoral dissertation for Darden, which was published by the
University Press of Virginia.
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                                                     November 25, 1997

	For more information, call Clark or Foster at (610) 660-1653
or Meiburg at (804) 924-4816. Television reporters should call our TV
News office at (804) 924-7550.  For more information about what's
happening at the University of Virginia, visit U.Va.'s Top News site,
updated daily: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/.