CHAPEL HILL -- Banks are one of the few businesses as stable as Sutton's Drugstore in downtown Chapel Hill.

But as the business of the district changes, so too does the financial picture of the individual banking institutions located on the Franklin Street strip.

Some changes are clearly visible: the empty storefronts of the now-closed First Citizens Bank and First Union, but most of the power shifts are not noticeable from outward appearances. Those shifts are much clearer in the snapshot the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. takes every year of the total dollar amount of deposits held or accepted by each bank on June 30.

Some of the only information available about bank performance, these numbers help bankers evaluate their performance when compared to competitors. And for the second year in a row, Bank of America was the cash king of downtown Chapel Hill.

Bank of America reported $161.8 million in deposits at its Franklin Street branch as of June 30 to the FDIC. The next closest competitor, with $75.5 million, was Central Carolina Bank at University Square, now operated as National Bank of Commerce.

First Citizens on Franklin Street posted $67.4 million in deposits, Branch Banking & Trust on Rosemary Street had $50 million, Wachovia Bank on Franklin Street $41.4 million and RBC Centura on the corner of Rosemary and North Columbia streets totaled $39.1 million.

Total deposits for one year do not fully tell the performance of these downtown branches, though. But year-to-year comparisons reveal the shift of power in the local banking scene.

Bank of America, for example, grew 54.6 percent in 2004 from 2003 holdings of $104.7 million. The next largest downtown bank, CCB, actually declined 10.9 percent from its 2003 level of $84.7 million.

Wachovia was the only other bank showing less on its summary of deposits form; the branch was down 8.6 percent from 2003.

BB&T, RBC Centura and First Citizens grew 40.8, 12.3 and 11.3, respectively, in 2004.

Deposit numbers, though, are a static reflection of a business that is constantly changing. "It's a snapshot, just like a picture," said Jim Carter, CCB vice president for this area. "Unfortunately, it does not give us a true moving picture to understand a bank's ability to gather deposits."

Smaller deposit numbers don't reflect the absolute health of CCB, Carter explained. "Any time you open a new office, that is going to impact the balance of another office," he said. CCB has been developing its business on the N.C. 54 corridor with the opening of a large branch in the Meadowmont business district.

When the new branch opened, CCB relocated some of its commercial lending providers. This, along with the migration of customers from one location to another, partially accounts for the decrease of deposits at the Franklin Street branch.

Carter maintained that the Franklin Street CCB remains very profitable for the company, despite shrinking deposits.

Bank of America's rapid deposit growth, though, has enabled it to steal away some of the lead in Chapel Hill market share CCB has long enjoyed. In 2004, CCB was the market leader with 32.6 percent of total deposits.

This was down, however, from 37.9 percent in 2003, while Bank of America increased from 21.8 percent in 2003 to 23.8 percent in 2004. "We've done a very good job of deepening our share of wallet with our existing client base," said Henry Essey, Bank of America city executive.

After redefining how its different lines of business operate together, Essey explained, the bank realized it could do more with current patrons by offering multiple financial products to individual and household customers through in-house referrals.

The goal is to keep customers' banking, loan and investment dollars all within the company, he said. Traditionally, customers may have spread their business in each of the different financial services categories across several banks.

Essey sees downtown businesses as a stable factor in his bank's financial portfolio and plans to focus on increasing business with existing individual consumers. Wachovia, on the other hand, is hoping it can boost its bottom line by targeting downtown businesses, like the new Ralph Lauren Rugby store, and increasing its loan business.

"This office doesn't have that much loan business," Chip Bailey, branch manager, acknowledged. But since his arrival last June, Bailey has helped restructure the branch and increase loan business from $4 million to $6.2 million.

Bailey said right now approximately 75 percent of his clients are students, most of whom don't bring in large deposits like a business. He also cites lack of parking at the branch as a reason some customers have migrated to other Wachovia locations from the downtown locations.

But customers may have been migrating to other banks as well. Wachovia's Chapel Hill market share dropped again in 2004. Now at 19.1 percent, Wachovia previously controlled 21 percent in 2003 and 22.2 percent in 2002.

Bailey, however, expects deposit growth this year near 18 percent, even after two years of deposit losses. "We've actually received new customers from CCB when they announced their merger with SunTrust," he said.

BB&T is also expecting it can continue to increase its business in downtown Chapel Hill. Although the downtown branch gained 40 percent in deposits last year, BB&T wants to be more aggressive in securing more of the new business that brought it an additional $69.6 million in 2004.

"It's probably not as strong growth as we would have liked," said Candice Vanore, BB&T branch manager.

Overall, BB&T did not increase Chapel Hill market share in 2004. Its 10.1 percent share is down from 11 percent in 2003.

RBC Centura did not improve market share, either. The bank's new level of 6.7 percent in 2004 is down from 7.4 percent in 2003 and 8.5 percent in 2002. Bill Harrington, RBC's Chapel Hill market executive, said readjusting the bank's structure in 2002 to the system employed by Royal Bank of Canada, the bank's owners, distracted the branch from responding to a turbulent Chapel Hill market.

"I think the decrease was during a tough banking year," said Harrington. Since that time, RBC has been on the upswing. "We've started being a lot more aggressive and competitive with rates."

Although business increased for the branch last year by $4.3 million, Harrington was unaware that nearly 16 times that amount in new banking dollars were flowing into the downtown area.

"I wish I knew where it was coming from so I could get it," he said.

Harrington projects that the branch will see near 50 percent growth this year. "Things [in Chapel Hill] have changed," he said. "A big part of what we have to do is keep up with that."

First Citizens bank decided not to change with a changing downtown. The company closed its Franklin Street location in December. The branch rebounded 11.3 percent last year after a 13.2 percent decrease between 2002 and 2003.

This performance, however, was not in line with the long-term goals of First Citizens in the Chapel Hill market, in which it holds an 8.5 percent share.

"As a bank, we evaluate our delivery systems on a regular basis," said Sam Nichols, First Citizens market executive. "We didn't feel our Franklin Street branch was serving at the capacity we need it to."

Nichols noted that many customers migrated to the bank's Elliot Road location, which has the convenience of free parking.

Many banks, however, have stayed, are are continuing their fight in the business of doing business in downtown Chapel Hill.