In 1988, many of the banks in Waycross were owned by big city banks. They’d all been bought up—and when a bank gets bought by a firm from somewhere else, the service changes. It’s no longer possible for management to make a big decision without getting approval from people that don’t live here.

A group of business leaders addressed the problem by founding a new bank. They applied for and received a charter from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance. The doors of Waycross Bank & Trust opened in 1988.