John Allison

I think you blacked out for a little bit there,

I think you blacked out for a little bit there,

We're pretty much on schedule, ... We are talking to some people right now, but mergers are unpredictable. ... We'd read more

We're pretty much on schedule, ... We are talking to some people right now, but mergers are unpredictable. ... We'd like to see a transaction in the early part of 2006, but whether we will or not, frankly, depends on the sellers.

A lot of it is the seat-of-your-pants-type thing and a lot of faith and trust in people.

A lot of it is the seat-of-your-pants-type thing and a lot of faith and trust in people.

BB&T over the years largely has grown through the merger-and- acquisition process, acquiring community banks and thrifts, and that's been read more

BB&T over the years largely has grown through the merger-and- acquisition process, acquiring community banks and thrifts, and that's been successful on our part. Over the last year we've had a little of this indigestion from a lot of mergers over a short period. We needed to take a little breather to refocus on organic revenue growth, and we think we're near that period of time where our internal operations are where we want, so we're looking at getting back into the (M&A) business.

We grew up competing with much larger institutions. They are very good at what they do and we knew that read more

We grew up competing with much larger institutions. They are very good at what they do and we knew that we couldn't beat them at their game.