The story of NationsBank

by Howard E. Covington

NationsBank became one of the nation's leading financial powers following its 1988 entry into Texas with the acquisition of the former First Republic banks and its 1991 merger with C&S/Sovran of Atlanta and Norfolk. NationsBank now has nearly $120 billion in assets and is the leading bank in a region stretching from Maryland to southern Florida and western Texas. Howard Covington and Marion Ellis provide a fascinating account of this nontraditional financial institution that is now the fourth-largest bank in the country. Since its formation in 1960 as a result of the merger of two North Carolina banks, the company has surprised analysts and competitors alike with its aggressive and innovative approach to management and banking. The company's success is grounded, Covington and Ellis explain, in a leadership style set by its first chief executive officer, Addison Reese, and continued by his successors, Thomas I. Storrs and Hugh McColl, Jr., the current CEO. This succession of competitive