Western Alliance built a national commercial bank out of specialist desks, local judgment and a willingness to learn odd corners of the economy. Its newest bet is that regulated dollars should move at the speed of the businesses using them.
First Horizon has spent 162 years learning a difficult banking trick: how to get bigger without becoming distant. Its wager is that Southern customers still want a banker who knows the market - plus the balance sheet, software and specialists of an $84.4 billion institution.