Lendmark Financial Services, Inc.

Lendmark Financial Services was organized in 1996 in the basement of Liberty Mortgage Corporation in Atlanta. We became part of the BB&T family when our parent company, First Liberty Bank, merged during the summer of 2000 with Branch Banking and Trust Company in Winston-Salem. Lendmark Financial Services original mission was to meet the personal and mortgage lending needs of clients in the state of Georgia who could not be served by traditional bank products. The company’s founders are among the current executive staff at Lendmark, Bobby Aiken – President and CEO and Joe H. Burgamy – Senior Vice President of Branch Operations.Almost from the beginning, it was clear that we had developed a plan that would prove to be a winner. We opened four branches in October 1996 in Conyers, Covington, Dalton, and Blue Ridge. A short eleven months later, we opened three more branches in Macon, Milledgeville, and Savannah, followed by our eighth branch in Waycross in June 1998. With the existing operation doing well and exceeding our goals and objectives, we took on the task of completing our first acquisition. In August of 1998, Lendmark acquired First Credit Corporation, expanding our branch presence to the Kingsland, Brunswick, and Augusta markets. Upon the completion of this successful acquisition, we began searching for additional opportunities. In March 1999, we completed our second acquisition of Center Finance. This acquisition was unique in that it allowed us to expand beyond the borders of Georgia into Jasper and East Ridge, Tennessee.