Florida Banking December 2021 | January 2022

S outhState Bank, headquartered in Winter Haven, Florida, has an incredible growth story thanks to a strong culture of leadership and empowerment. Today, SouthState is the 34th biggest bank in the country with $40 billion in assets. Formerly CenterState Bank, the bank took its new name as a result of the 2020 merger of equals with South Carolina-based South State Bank. The original CenterState Bank was founded in 2000 by Ernie Pinner and John Corbett as part of a 4-bank charter. “We are all here because of Ernie,” said CEO John Corbett. “The story starts with him.” Pinner gave Corbett his first job in banking when he hired him as a teller just out of college, and they have worked together ever since. He invited Corbett along for the ride when he had the opportunity to start a bank of his own.

banker that is closest to the customer.” This model is critical to the way that SouthState does business, because it would allow them to scale. “We can’t treat every geography the same. We allow the local leader to build for their geography,” said Corbett. “One of the things we’ve loved in the last 20 years of buying these banks is visiting each market and learning about its history.” SouthState bank presidents own their balance sheets and income statements, making decisions based on what’s best for their unique market. Most importantly, Pinner’s team wanted to ensure that every acquisition or merger was a “culture fit” for the bank. This was the deciding factor for the bank’s acquisition of correspondent banking company Silverton, and later the equal partner merger with SouthState.

Chief Strategy Officer Steve Young heads up the correspondent banking business, which is now nationwide. SouthState serves over 1,000 banks in 47 states, accounting for 20% of the country’s banks. “Ernie and John were so purposeful about making sure that our partnerships would not dilute the culture of the bank. If cultures weren’t aligned, we chose not to move forward,” said Young. Thompson added that M&A

“WE CAN’T TREAT EVERY GEOGRAPHY THE SAME. WE ALLOW THE LOCAL LEADER TO BUILD FOR THEIR GEOGRAPHY.” - JOHN C. CORBETT

Pinner was a bank president by the time he was 27 years old, and a pillar in his community; Corbett attributes their success in raising the initial $10 million in capital to Pinner’s stellar reputation. Within its first 10 years, CenterState Bank crossed the billion-dollar threshold in May of 2009. Corbett believes that the financial crisis of 2008 was the crucible for the company. While other banks

is not for the faint of heart; it requires a lot of heavy lifting, to get folks to buy into what you’re trying to do. This was “Phase One” of the bank’s rapid growth. Phase Two, then, was about deciding whether or not to expand outside of Florida. “We did not want to dilute the powerful demographics of a Florida-based company. And so we chose Atlanta, because that was a market with demographics comparable to Florida,” said Corbett. The team made its first out-of-state acquisition in 2018. Meanwhile, the leaders at South State Bank in Columbia, South Carolina were charting a similar path. “They were coming south from the Carolinas, and we were going north from Florida. By expanding up to Atlanta and Birmingham, we were adjacent to [South State],” said Corbett. “Our teams saw the need for scale to create the next powerful regional bank in the southeast.” The merger closed in June 2020. South State CEO Robert Hill took the role of Executive Chairman and Corbett became CEO of the combined company. “About five or six years ago, it became imminent that I needed to step out of the way and let youth keep charging. So I stepped down and became a

took a “survival” mentality, Pinner’s team decided to play both defense and offense simultaneously. “Ernie gave us more responsibility than we deserved,” said Mark Thompson, southern banking president. “He allowed us to make mistakes; we learned quickly and we worked hard to figure things out because we didn’t want to disappoint him. He didn’t micromanage, but he asked good questions.” With Pinner at the helm, the bank continued to grow, acquiring other banks throughout central and south Florida. Today, SouthState Bank is an amalgamation of 65 banks. Looking back on the initial decision to expand, Pinner and Corbett recall the team’s hesitation about opening a second location. The question was how they’d ensure culture continuity across multiple locations. “We realized that we needed to document and memorialize the values that were important to us when we founded the bank, and how we planned to stay true to those values,” said Corbett. “You’ll find that our core values are really a reflection of Ernie’s philosophies that we started with.” The first of the bank’s core values is “local market leadership,” describing a business model that “supports the unique character of the communities we serve by encouraging decision making by the

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