Another bank closing in Roseboro; second this year

Michael B. Hardison, The Sampson Independent, Clinton, N.C.
·3 min read

Nov. 26—ROSEBORO — Another big and unexpected blow has come to the town with the closure of a second bank, as it has been announced that Truist Bank will be shutting its doors. That comes on the heels of the closure of First Citizens Bank's Roseboro branch earlier this year.

"Obviously we're disappointed that Truist has decided to also close its doors in Roseboro," Mayor Alice Butler said.

Butler said that the announcement of the bank's closure was not only a shock, but it came out of nowhere. The mayor said she was at just as much of a loss as to the reason for the closure as anybody else.

"We didn't know anything about what they were planning on and we didn't know anything about them planning to close until last Friday when they announced it," Butler said. "Other than that, I don't have more information. I didn't receive a letter or anything; I've just been told it by some of their customers."

A similar circumstance happened in Roseboro earlier this year.

On Aug. 24, the long-running First Citizens Bank officially closed its doors. Losing First Citizens came much the same way as Truist, with little to no warning.

Back during that closing Butler also said that she had no information on First Citizens closing nor why they chose to do so. By the time the town was notified, the decision had been made and it was already happening.

"I'll be honest, I don't have much information on why they chose to do it," Butler said in another Independent article on First Citizens. "We were pretty much just notified that it was happening. When I called and inquired to get more information, I was told that it had already been voted on by the, I think they told me Federal Reserve, and that there was no turning back."

"They had made their decision before they let anybody know that the decision was already final."

These comments were echoed in the aftermath of this latest Truist announcement. The biggest difference in these two situations was Butler's attempts to obtain the First Citizens building for the town since it had been around so long in Roseboro. She was denied that option as First Citizens already had plans to put the property up for sale.

The Truist closing is another major hit to Roseboro as a whole since it trickles down to other aspects of the town. Butler did offer some brief information about what the town board and leaders are doing to remedy this issue, but noting is concrete as of yet.

"Right now, the town, along with some business leaders, we're looking to recruit a bank to come to Roseboro," she said. "We're going to be actively trying to recruit a bank as best we can considering, again, that we didn't know that they were planning on closing the bank."

While they intend to take proactive steps to solve the problem — a meeting has been set to discuss the matter further — Butler noted that there are many things left to consider.

"Right now, that would be up in the air but we are going to be trying to recruit a bank to come to Roseboro," she said. "We're going to be meeting Monday night as a group to try to get something together on that front."

To get more information on the issue, the Independent reached out to Pat Nobles, senior VP at Truist. Nobles cited legal issues involved that prohibited him from speaking on the matter.

"Unfortunately for us, we can't give comments on things like this, legally," he said. "The only thing I can really direct you to is our media team via email."

After reaching out to the media team, no reply had been received as of press deadline Friday.

Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.