Oct. 11--BB&T Corp. has tightened its grip on the top share of local banking deposits, according to 2008 data released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. this week.

That hold on Forsyth County and the Winston-Salem metropolitan statistical area could grow even stronger with the proposed sale of Wachovia Corp. to Wells Fargo & Co., Kevin Fitzsimmons, an analyst with Sandler O'Neill & Partners, wrote in a report issued yesterday.

Analysts have said that in a typical takeover, between 10 percent to 15 percent of the acquired bank's customers will change banks. Some analysts have said that the runoff could be as high as 25 percent among Wachovia customers, particularly in the Southeast.

Fitzsimmons wrote that Wells Fargo could be particularly vulnerable to customer runoff in North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, the District of Columbia, South Carolina and Maryland.

BB&T's deposits in Forsyth County totaled $9 billion on June 30, compared with $8.6 billion on June 30, 2007. The bank had a 62.7 percent market share in the county, compared with 60 percent in 2007.

It was the eighth consecutive year that BB&T held the top market share in Forsyth.

BB&T's market share was 58.7 percent in the Winston-Salem MSA, up from 56.4 percent in 2007. The MSA consists of Davie, Forsyth, Stokes and Yadkin counties. Wachovia's market share in Forsyth was 16.2 percent based on deposits of $2.3 billion. That's compared with 20.2 percent and deposits of nearly $2.9 billion in 2007. In the Winston-Salem MSA, Wachovia's market share dropped to 15.6 percent from 19.3 percent.

Wachovia had market share of 40 percent in Forsyth just before its purchase by First Union Corp. and headquarters move to Charlotte in September 2001.

However, Wachovia's market share in North Carolina expanded to 43.8 percent from 39.4 percent in 2007. BB&T moved into second at 12.9 percent, while Bank of America Corp. was third at 12.5 percent.

Analysts said that banks tend to shift corporate-investment deposits to the site of its headquarters as part of integrating purchases. These shifts tend to skew year-to-year comparisons of market share.

Bob Denham, a spokesman for BB&T, said that the bank has received nearly $1.2 billion in new deposits throughout its territory in the past two weeks. He said that it received $150 million in new deposits in the past week in the Triad.

"We're trying to get the word out that a strong bank like BB&T is still writing loans to qualified borrowers," Denham said. "We're always maintained a responsible approach to lending. It's part of our DNA.