a bank already established there. The first Tennessee branch was located in Nashville. By the end of 1989, SouthTrust opened its first South Carolina branch, located in Charleston. As 1990 came around, SouthTrust had grown to over $7.5 billion in assets and had become the largest bank in Alabama. By 1991 SouthTrust had entered the North Carolina market when it bought Barclays' small American operation based in Charlotte. By 1992 SouthTrust had $12 billion in assets and 336 banking branches in six states, but announced that instead of looking to grow geographical wise that it would instead focus on growing in its existing markets. By the end of 1993, SouthTrust's assets had grown to $15.1 billion. In 1994 SouthTrust made its first entry into Mississippi when it purchased First Jefferson Corporation. This purchase helped added to an increase in SouthTrust branch number which had grown to over 400. In 1995, SouthTrust acquired Bankers First Corporation (Nasdaq: BNKF), which was the parent of Bankers First Federal Savings and Loan. Two big changes came in 1996. The first was that all SouthTrust banks would merge under one national bank charter. The second was SouthTrusts entry into life insurance through SouthTrust Insurance, Inc. By end of 1997, SouthTrust entered the state of Texas through when it bought SecurityBank Texas. 1998 to 2005 The late 1990s proved to be one of the most important times in SouthTrust's 118-year history. The bank had become one of the largest banks in the south. Birmingham had grown into the largest banking city in the south based on the number of top 50 US banks headquartered there, although not the largest by assets. In Birmingham, AmSouth Bancorporation, Compass Bancshares, Regions Financial Corporation and SouthTrust all became known as the Big Four. All four banks were top 50 US banks and all headquartered in downtown Birmingham. Only New York City had more banks and no other city equaled with Birmingham. In 2000 the bank made a change from being a nationally chartered bank to a state chartered bank. In 2001, SouthTrust made its first entry into the Virginia banking market when it purchased CENIT Bank. Later that same year, SouthTrust expanded in Virginia when it bought the Bank of Tidewater. From the end of 2001 to 2003, SouthTrust continued making acquisitions by buying small banks in markets in which they already operated so that it could grow its customer