Fast Eddie zips by the Wachovia way.

• Position: Ed Crutchfield, chief executive officer of First Union Bancorp.

Sometimes you just can't win for losing. Wachovia Corp. bagged bragging rights as the banking leader in Virginia this summer when it paid $542 million for Charlottesville-based Jefferson Bankshares Inc. and $2.3 billion for Richmond-based Central Fidelity Inc. But within weeks, First Union snatched the title with its $3.3 billion buy of Signet Banking Corp. of Richmond.

Wachovia is playing down its brief reign as No. 1. "Only newsmedia people pay attention to that sort of thing," CEO Bud Baker chides.

That's not strictly true, says Ed Najarian, an analyst with Wheat First Butcher Singer in Richmond. Greater control of a market means you dictate rates and fees. And First Union, now with almost 20% of the Virginia market, was certainly provoked by Wachovia, which controls 14%. "Bankers tend to move in herds," says Darren Short, an analyst with Robinson-Humphrey in Atlanta.

Though it had no branches there, Wachovia had long had its eye on Virginia, Baker notes. The Old Dominion native made it known at the start of this year that, after more than five years without an acquisition, it was time to do a deal. The message was heard loud and clear: Both banks asked to be bought.

About a month-later...