April 2013
| Business World Magazine | 329
national enterprises that were all headquar-
tered elsewhere. First Security Group sought
to make the area their home and envisioned
that with the provision of flexible, quality
services rendered by personable profession-
als, the firm could grow to become some-
thing of the hometown favorite in fulfilling
customer needs. After incorporating in Ten-
nessee in 1999 as a bank holding company
complicit with all the rules and regulations
mandated by the Board of Governors of the
Federal Reserve System, the group head-
quartered in Chattanooga and established
banking practices through a wholly-owned
subsidiary branded as FSGBank N.A. More
than $1 billion in holdings and more than
30 branches throughout Tennessee and
Georgia ultimately resulted from that initial
spark of intention. Business was certainly
heated for a time, in fact, boiling over with
loans involving real estate. Then it happened,
quite unexpectedly, as the economy took a
dive, it became increasingly difficult for this
once thriving firm to stay afloat. Instability
gave rise to increasing speculations on viabil-
ity, questions as to the efficacy of the bank’s
leadership, scrutiny from regulators, receiv-
ership and in 2011, the story of FSG seemed
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