Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 23, 1993                   TAG: 9307230083
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VIRGINIA'S RECESSION IS OVER; YOU CAN BANK ON IT

Richard Tilghman, head of the Richmond parent of Crestar Bank, was in Roanoke on Thursday to deliver a "state of the corporation" speech to the company's 240 Western Region officers.

Although the economy is not back to normal, he said, the recession in Virginia is over. It is not struggling as it was two years ago when Crestar and other banks had to concentrate on "repairing ourselves."

Crestar emerged from the recession a stronger bank by a wide margin, Tilghman said. Compared to the recession's start in 1989, he said, Crestar boasts more capital strength, higher loan loss reserves, more deposits, greater liquidity and a larger market share.

Now a lot of people are concerned about banks coming in from other states because the Virginia banking market is crowded and fractured among many institutions.

"The last war was the recession," he said; the next war will be a "competitive struggle" for which Crestar is well positioned.

In an interview, he shot down what he conceded are widely publicized reports that his bank is a takeover target for an out-of-state predator. To the contrary, he said, Crestar intends to grow within its market, which is Virginia and metropolitan Washington.

Tilghman said Crestar's vision for the Crestar's Roanoke-based Western Region, Tilghman said, is its second-biggest, the most culturally diverse and second-most-profitable. good of its shareholders is a bank that ranks at the top in that target area. It has no ambitions to spread beyond that boundary.

Crestar intends to continue "being an ambitious acquirer of smaller financial institutions," as it has done about a dozen times since 1987.

Tilghman cited the merger involving former Colonial American National Bank of Roanoke. By buying that bank, he said, Crestar broke out of the pack to become Roanoke's second-largest bank behind Dominion, now First Union National Bank of Virginia.

In Washington, he said, it acquired Perpetual Savings Bank and other smaller institutions to achieve second in that area behind NationsBank.

Crestar also ranks second in Virginia in market share. With NationsBank's spread in deposits at $1.5 billion, he said, "that bridge could be crossed."

With market share, good products and competitive capacity in its target area, Tilghman said, "we'll be here a long time, I think."

He called Virginia "a marvelous franchise" and one of the nation's premier banking markets.

Its Roanoke-based Western Region, he said, is Crestar's second-biggest, the most culturally diverse and second-most-profitable. Each region, he said, is independent and run by its regional president - in the west by F. Edward Harris.

Tilghman said Crestar is engaged in a small-business initiative trying to place $200 million in commercial loans. When that goal is met, another program will be announced.

Banks want to lend, Tilghman said: "The problem is lack of demand."

Like individuals, he explained, businesses were shaken by their debt levels as the country slid into a recession. Restructuring and downsizing deferred the time when businesses needed to borrow, he said, but the money is there when the demand returns.