A lender bender.

• Position: Ranking of North Carolina's banks and savings and loan associations - Special Report: Banking

Tar Heel banks have developed a powerful thirst for thrifts.

The chasm dividing the state's nine major banks and the rest of the pack is turning into the Grand Canyon.

That's evident from BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA's annual ranking of the state's banks by assets. Far behind No. 9 Central Carolina, with $1.9 billion in assets, comes High Point Bank, with $417 million.

North Carolina's savings and loans are much more closely bunched, with 26 having assets of between $200 million and $810 million. But look closely at our first ranking of the state's 60 largest S&Ls. It won't be the same next year. Of the 14 largest S&Ls, First American Savings Bank of Greensboro has been taken over by the Resolution Trust Corp. and banks have snapped up five others. No. 1 First Home Federal of Greensboro, under the gun from regulators, spent much of this year shopping for a buyer.

Clearly, the big banks are preying on S&Ls for growth. "The banks are doing well and able to make offers that people feel like they can't decline," says William White Jr., CEO of FedFirst Bancshares, which owns First Federal Savings of Winston-Salem. Only 15 months after FedFirst's conversion from mutual ownership to stock at $10 a share, Southern National agreed to pay $89 million in stock, or $40 a share, for the S&L.

"We're getting 1.5 times book value, which is a pretty good price for any time," White says. "We didn't anticipate anyone would come in and buy our bank, but when they offer enough, you have an obligation to your stockholders."

While First Union has...