Countdown.

• Author: McMillan, Alex Frew
• Position: Tennessee commercial banks

The state's commercial banks display fatter figures as their ranks continue to grow ever thinner.

Every financial figure tells a different story about North Carolina-based commercial banks. But the most telling stat could be just how many of them there are.

Their ranks thin each passing year. Three years ago, there were 78. Then 70, 66, now 59. Ten banks dropped off this year because of mergers, twice as many as last year. Three of them were gobbled up by Triangle Bank, and it plans to buy another, Granville United, before year-end.

That increased Triangle's assets from $388 million last year to $837 million on March 31, the date on which BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA's ranking is based. Triangle jumped from No. 15 to 10. Bank of Mecklenburg also made a big leap, from $147 million in assets to $243 million, in part because it bought an Essex Savings Bank branch in Charlotte. It moved up from No. 33 to 23.

But there's still a long way to the top. This is the first ranking to reflect the BB&T-Southern National and Central Carolina-Security Capital unions. Eight banks are now well ahead of the pack with more than $3.5 billion in assets. There weren't any instate megamergers announced during 1995, but that's a hiatus, not a halt, experts say. "It may be a couple of years before another really big one happens," says Al Fuqua, president of the North Carolina Bankers Association. "But it's going to happen."

The impetus is interstate branching, set to go into full effect June 1. That's when that part of the Riegle-Neal act, signed into law in 1994, goes nationwide. It lets banks in one state own branches in another without having to maintain a separate company there. Some states, including North Carolina, allow it already. States can opt out to protect their home-grown bank's. (As of August, the only one to do so was Texas.) But the net effect is to simplify consolidation.

The pace is already rapid. Since the mid-'80s, the number of banks nationwide has dropped by a third. They've cleaned up their balance sheets and become more efficient. "They've got plenty of money, and there's a willingness on their part to spend it," says Vernon Plack, a banking analyst with Scott & Stringfellow in Richmond, Va.

Some see consolidation as an opportunity for community banks. (Two start-up commercial banks debuted in the state since last year's list - No. 57 First Gaston opened its doors in July 1995, and No. 59 Catawba Valley...