BankTown USA Listen to the interview with former Bank of America CFO Jim Hance   Note to readers: This is a large file, roughly 17 megabytes. Some audio programs will begin playing after buffering a small amount; others will download the entire file. If you wish to save it to your hard drive for listening to at a later time, right click on the link above and select, "Save Target As ..." The series Day One: How Charlotte became a banking giant, outpacing Pittsburgh's banks Day Two: As steel shaped Pittsburgh, banking defines Charlotte Day Three: Pittsburgh ex-pats miss city but make a better living in Charlotte

To learn more about how Charlotte became the nation's second-largest banking center, Post-Gazette staff writer Dan Fitzpatrick sat down with 61-year-old Jim Hance, former Bank of America chief financial officer who acted as right-hand man to Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl, the man most responsible for the rapid expansion of North Carolina banking over the last two decades.

Mr. Hance negotiated many of the bank's acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s. He remains a major player in Charlotte's civic affairs, helping to bring NBA basketball back to the Queen City and building the Charlotte Bobcats a new arena. Interviewed over lunch at the Charlotte City Club, Mr. Hance talked about the rapid consolidation of the banking industry, why Pittsburgh banks fell behind, the push to take over California, the moves of crosstown rival Wachovia Corp.(formerly known as First Union) and its CEO Ed Crutchfield and why the aggressive pursuit of bank acquisitions nationwide happened first in North Carolina.

He begins with a discussion of North Carolina's liberal banking laws and the moves of Mr. McColl's predecessor, Tom Storrs, in the 1960s and 1970s, when Bank of America was known as North Carolina National Bank.