The years following Ashley’s retirement saw rapid growth and expansion as Ashe Federal became AF Bank and opened five additional branch locations in Ashe, Watauga, and Alleghany Counties. A mutual holding company, AsheCo, MHC, was established in 1996. A mid-tier holding company, AF Bankshares, Inc. was created in 1998 and in 2002 the company’s shareholders voted to change its name to AF Financial Group.

Heritage Bank, a state chartered commercial bank, has been serving metro Atlanta's Southern Crescent since 1955. The independent community bank has six full service offices, features a well-rounded offering of commercial and consumer products, and is an active, involved member of the community it serves. The company's stock is traded under the symbol "CCFH.OB".

Deere & Company, founded in 1837 (collectively called John Deere), has grown from a one-man blacksmith shop into a corporation that today does business around the world and employs more than 50,000 people. Deere Credit Services, Inc. continues to be guided, as it has been since its beginning, by the core values exhibited by its founder: integrity, quality, commitment and innovation.

Waccamaw Bancshares is the holding company for the Waccamaw Bank, which operates about 15 branches in the coastal Carolina region. With about 15 branch loactions, Waccamaw provides traditional products such as checking and savings accounts and IRAs. It primarily uses funds from deposits to write commercial loans and mortgages, including business loans, construction loans, and land development loans. Hit by an increase in bad loans, the company is working with regulators to raise its capital holdings. It is also tightening up its lending practices.

Banco Santander, S.A. provides various financial products and services in Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, other European countries, Brazil, Latin America, and the United States. It operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Global Wholesale Banking, and Asset Management and Insurance. The Retail Banking segment offers a range of deposit products, including savings, current, demand, time, and notice deposits, as well as international and domestic interbank deposits; and loan products and services, such as auto financing, personal loans, mortgages, and leasing and renting. This segment also offers credit cards, automated cash dispensers, savings books updaters, telephone banking, and electronic and Internet banking.

Carver Bancorp, Inc. operates as the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank that provides various consumer and commercial banking services for consumers, businesses, and governmental and quasi-governmental agencies in New York. The company’s deposit products include demand, savings, and time deposits; non-interest-bearing accounts; negotiable order of withdrawal, savings and club, passbook and statement, and money market accounts; and certificates of deposit. Its loan portfolio comprises commercial and residential, multi-family and residential mortgage, one-to four-family residential, construction, and business loans; consumer and other loans, such as credit card, personal, and home improvement loans; non-residential real estate loans, which include commercial real estate; and church loans. The company also offers debit cards, as well as provides telephone banking, online banking, and automated teller machine (ATM) services. As of March 31, 2009, it operated 9 branches in the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens boroughs of New York City, as well as 12 ATMs. Carver Bancorp, Inc. was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, through its subsidiaries, offers banking and financial services to personal, commercial, corporate, and institutional customers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It provides private banking and investment services, and offshore banking services; and debt and equity financing and risk management services, as well as money markets, rates flow trading, currencies and commodities, equities, credit markets and portfolio management and origination services. The company also offers global payments, cash and liquidity management, and trade finance and commercial card products and services; sells and underwrites retail and SME insurance over the telephone and Internet, as well as through brokers and partnerships; and offers general insurance, including motor insurance under the brands of Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege, Green Flag, and NIG. In addition, it provides operational technology, customer support in telephony, account management, lending and money transmission, global purchasing, property, and other services. The company was founded in 1727 and is headquartered in Edinburgh, the United Kingdom. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc operates as a subsidiary of HM Treasury.

Emporiki Bank of Greece offers traditional financing and banking services, including investment banking, housing loans, asset management, securities portfolio management, leasing, venture capital, and insurance products. Founded in 1907, Emporiki has about 370 branches in Greece, plus nearly 90 in Albania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, London, Frankfurt, and Romania. About a dozen subsidiary companies (Emporiki Bank Group) offer a wide array of financial services -- from real estate development and management to consumer credit, insurance, and vehicle leasing -- to customers both private and corporate. France's #1 bank, Credit Agricole, owns more than 80% of Emporiki.

GE Facto (which also does business as GE Factofrance or Societe Factofrance) keeps businesses from having to factor in the time it takes customers to pay bills. Companies can avoid the typical 30- to 90-day billing cycle by selling their invoices to Factofrance, which then collects the money. Factofrance also provides accounts receivable management and debt recovery. Subsidiaries include Cofacredit and Factobail, which handle export and IT financing, respectively. Part of GE, Factofrance was formed by the 2002 merger of GE Capital Finance and Heller Financial. (The latter firm was founded in 1966 by Walter Heller, the Banque de l'Indochine, and BNP).

One of the largest commercial banks in Thailand, Bangkok Bank provides a variety of banking services to individual and commercial clients, including checking and savings accounts, loans, Internet banking, and treasury and investment banking services. It operates about 850 branches serving 16 million customers throughout Thailand, about a dozen other Southeast Asian countries, the UK, and the US. The bank was founded in 1944 in response to the difficulty Thai businessmen encountered in receiving credit facilities from foreign banks; it has since had a hand in developing its homeland's industry and agriculture.

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