BB&T Manager: We Want to Grow Warehouse Business

BB&T Bancorp plans to grow its warehouse lending business in the coming months and is receiving multiple requests for not only new lines but expansion of existing credits. Jeff Ellison, president of warehouse lending for BB&T, said in an interview with NMN that the company "is definitely looking for new business" but the one caveat is that it will only lend to nonbanks in BB&T's branch "footprint" in the South and mid-Atlantic. To date, the bank has said little about its warehouse plans but Mr. Ellison made it clear that he has been given a mandate to grow the business. "We'll be doing more in the second quarter." The warehouse chief declined to give a specific dollar amount of its commitments at yearend but said it was between $1.5 billion and $2 billion. Last summer BB&T, in a federally assisted transaction, purchased Colonial BancGroup, Montgomery, Ala., then the largest warehouse provider in the nation.