SouthState Corporation operates as the bank holding company for SouthState Bank, National Association that provides a wide range of banking services and products
The company has a branch network located throughout Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. In addition, the company operates SSB Insurance Corp., a captive insurance subsidiary pursuant to Section 831(b) of the U.S. Tax Code.
The company operates a correspondent banking and capital markets service div...
SouthState Corporation operates as the bank holding company for SouthState Bank, National Association that provides a wide range of banking services and products
The company has a branch network located throughout Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. In addition, the company operates SSB Insurance Corp., a captive insurance subsidiary pursuant to Section 831(b) of the U.S. Tax Code.
The company operates a correspondent banking and capital markets service division for over 1,200 small and medium sized community financial institutions throughout the United States. Based primarily in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama, this division earns commissions on fixed income security sales, fees from hedging services, loan brokerage fees and consulting fees for services related to these activities. In addition, the bank operates SouthState|DuncanWilliams Securities Corp. (‘SouthState|DuncanWilliams’), a full-service registered broker dealer headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. The services offered by SouthState|DuncanWilliams are complementary to the bank’s correspondent banking and capital markets businesses and provide additional opportunities to the bank’s client base. The bank also operates SouthState Advisory, Inc., a wholly owned registered investment advisor, which offers support to the bank’s Wealth line of business. The bank owns Corporate Billing, LLC (‘Corporate Billing’), a transaction-based finance company headquartered in Decatur, Alabama that provides factoring, invoicing, collection and accounts receivable management services to transportation companies and automotive parts and service providers nationwide.
Products and Services
Lending Activities
The company’s loan portfolio includes commercial real estate loans, residential real estate loans, commercial and industrial loans and consumer loans.
Commercial Real Estate Loans. As of December 31, 2024, 53% of the company’s loan portfolio consisted of loans secured by commercial real estate (including owner occupied and non-owner occupied commercial real estate, other income producing property and construction and land development lending). The company offers construction financing, acquisition financing or refinancing of properties, commercial lines of credit and other loans that are secured by commercial real estate.
Residential Real Estate Loans. As of December 31, 2024, 26% of the company’s loan portfolio consisted of residential real estate loans, including home equity loans. The company provides one-to-four family residential real estate loans with terms ranging from 10 to 30 years, with either fixed or adjustable interest rates and home equity lines. It is not the company’s normal business practice to originate subprime loans. The company’s closed-end first lien loans are for purposes of property purchased, or for refinancing existing loans. The majority of the company’s loans are owner occupied, full documentation loans.
Commercial and Industrial (‘C&I’) Loans. As of December 31, 2024, 18% of the company’s loan portfolio consisted of commercial and industrial loans. The company’s C&I loans include lines of credit, acquisition finance credit facilities and other types of commercial credit, and typically have maturities of five years or less. The company also has an SBA 7(a) line of business whereby the company routinely sells the government guaranteed portion of the SBA loans to investors with the unguaranteed portion of the loan and the servicing rights retained.
Other Consumer Loans. As of December 31, 2024, 3% of the company’s loan portfolio consisted of other types of consumer loans. The company offers consumer loans to its customers for personal, family and household purposes, including auto, boat and personal installment loans.
The company has a strong team of consumer and commercial bankers to execute on its client-centered, relationship-driven banking model. The company’s commercial banking team consists of experienced professionals that use an advisory approach that emphasizes understanding each client’s business and offering a broad suite of loan, deposit and treasury management products and services. The company’s consumer banking team consists of experienced professionals that focus on knowing their individual clients in order to best meet their financial needs, offering a full complement of loan, deposit and online banking solutions. The company generally does business with clients located in the areas served by its branches, and the company focuses its marketing efforts on these areas.
Deposit Products, Treasury Services, and Other Funding Sources
The company offers its customers a variety of deposit products and services, including checking accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts, time deposit accounts and treasury and merchant services, through multiple channels, including the company’s extensive network of full-service branches, and its online, mobile and telephone banking platforms. As of December 31, 2024, the company’s deposit portfolio was consisted of 27% noninterest-bearing deposits and 73% interest bearing deposits. The company intends to continue its efforts to provide funding for the company’s business from customer relationship deposits.
The company’s deposits are primarily obtained from depositors located around its branch footprint, and the company has attractive opportunities to capture additional retail and commercial deposits in the company’s markets. In order to attract and retain deposits, the company relies on providing quality service, offering a suite of retail and commercial products and services and introducing new products and services that meet the company’s customers’ needs as they evolve.
In addition to traditional banking activities and the other products and services specified above, the company provides a broad array of financial services to the company’s customers, including debit card and mobile services, funds transfer products and services, and treasury management services, including merchant services, automated clearing house services, lock-box services, remote deposit capture services and other treasury services.
Correspondent Banking and Capital Markets
The company operates a correspondent banking and capital markets business division through the bank and through SouthState|DuncanWilliams, the bank’s broker dealer subsidiary acquired in February 2021. This line of business’s primary revenue generating activities are related to the capital markets division, which includes commissions earned on fixed income security sales, fees from hedging services, loan brokerage fees and consulting fees for services related to these activities; and its correspondent banking division, which includes spread income earned on correspondent bank deposits (i.e., federal funds purchased) and correspondent bank checking account deposits and fees from safe-keeping activities, bond accounting services for correspondents, asset/liability consulting related activities, international wires, and other clearing and corporate checking account services. The fees derived from the correspondent banking services are less volatile than those generated through the capital markets group. The customer base includes small to medium size financial institutions located throughout the United States.
Wealth Management
Through the bank and SouthState Advisory, Inc., the company offers wealth management and other fiduciary and private banking services targeted to affluent clients, including individuals, business owners, families and professional service companies. In addition to fiduciary and investment management fee income, these services enable the company to build new relationships and expand existing relationships to grow its deposits and loans. Through the company’s wealth management line of business, the company offers financial planning, retirement services and trust and investment management for affluent clients as well as clients with more modest resources. The company offers a wide range of investment alternatives, including certificates of deposits, mutual funds, annuities, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts and other financial products.
Mortgage Banking
The company has a mortgage line of business that originates single-family home loans and either sells into the secondary market or holds in its portfolio those mortgages. The company retains servicing rights for those loans the company holds in its portfolio and for the majority of the loans that are sold.
Investment Securities
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s investment securities included U.S. Government agencies; residential mortgage-backed securities issued by U.S. government agencies or sponsored enterprises; residential collateralized mortgage-obligations issued by U.S. government; agencies or sponsored enterprises; commercial mortgage-backed securities issued by U.S. government agencies or sponsored enterprises; state and municipal obligations; and Small Business Administration loan-backed securities, and corporate securities.
Regulations
The company is registered as a bank holding company with the Federal Reserve under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (the ‘BHC Act’) and has elected to be a financial holding company. As a financial holding company, the company is subject to comprehensive regulation, examination and supervision by the Federal Reserve and are subject to its regulatory reporting requirements.
The company and the bank must each remain ‘well-capitalized’ and ‘well-managed’ and the bank must receive a Community Reinvestment Act (‘CRA’) rating of at least ‘Satisfactory’ at its most recent examination in order for the company to maintain its status as a financial holding company.
The bank is a national bank subject to comprehensive regulation, examination and supervision by the OCC and is subject to its regulatory reporting requirements. The deposits of the bank are insured by the FDIC and, accordingly, the bank is also subject to certain FDIC regulations and the FDIC has backup examination authority and some enforcement powers over the bank. The bank also is subject to certain Federal Reserve regulations.
The company is also subject to the disclosure and regulatory requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, both as administered by the SEC, as well as the rules of NYSE that apply to companies with securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company is also supervised and examined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (‘CFPB’) with respect to consumer protection laws and regulations.
The deposits of the bank are insured by the FDIC up to the limits under applicable law, which are set at $250,000 for accounts under the same name and title. The bank is subject to deposit insurance premium assessments.
Federal laws, rules, regulations and standards, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (the GLBA), require financial institutions to, among other things, periodically disclose their privacy policies and practices relating to sharing personal information and enable retail customers to opt out of the company’s ability to share such personal information with unaffiliated third parties under certain circumstances.
The bank is also subject to rules and regulations issued by the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including with respect to data privacy and cybersecurity. Additionally, like other lenders, the bank uses credit bureau data in its underwriting activities. Use of such data is regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which also regulates reporting information to credit bureaus, prescreening individuals for credit offers, sharing of information between affiliates, and using affiliate data for marketing purposes. Similar state laws may impose additional requirements on the company and its subsidiaries.
The enactment of the Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act (the CIRCIA) in 2022, once rulemaking is complete, will require, among other things, certain companies to report significant cyber incidents to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (the CISA) within 72 hours from the time the company reasonably believes the incident occurred (and within 24 hours of making a ransom payment as a result of a ransomware attack).
The company’s broker dealer subsidiary and investment adviser subsidiary are subject to regulation by the SEC. FINRA is the primary self-regulatory organization for the company’s registered broker-dealer subsidiary.
History
The company was founded in 1933. It was incorporated in 1985 under the laws of South Carolina. The company was formerly known as First Financial Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to South State Corporation in 2014.