E8-30244. Formations of, Acquisitions by, and Mergers of Bank Holding Companies

The companies listed in this notice have applied to the Board for approval, pursuant to the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 (12 U.S.C. 1841 et seq.) (BHC Act), Regulation Y (12 CFR Part 225), and all other applicable statutes and regulations to become a bank holding company and/or to acquire the assets or the ownership of, control of, or the power to vote shares of a bank or bank holding company and all of the banks and nonbanking companies owned by the bank holding company, including the companies listed below.

The applications listed below, as well as other related filings required by the Board, are available for immediate inspection at the Federal Reserve Bank indicated. The applications also will be available for inspection at the offices of the Board of Governors. Interested persons may express their views in writing on the standards enumerated in the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1842(c)). If the proposal also involves the acquisition of a nonbanking company, the review also includes whether the acquisition of the nonbanking company complies with the standards in section 4 of the BHC Act (12 U.S.C. 1843). Unless otherwise noted, nonbanking activities will be conducted throughout the United States. Additional information on all bank holding companies may be obtained from the National Information Center website at www.ffiec.gov/​nic/​.

Unless otherwise noted, comments regarding each of these applications must be received at the Reserve Bank indicated or the offices of the Board of Governors not later than January 15, 2009.

A. Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (A. Linwood Gill, III, Vice President) 701 East Byrd Street, Richmond, Virginia 23261-4528:

1. Southern Bancshares, Inc., Mount Olive, North Carolina, to acquire up to 9.9 percent of the voting shares of ECB Bancorp, Inc., and thereby indirectly acquire up to 9.9 percent of the voting shares of East Carolina Bank, both of Englehard, North Carolina.

B. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (Steve Foley, Vice President) 1000 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, Georgia 30309:

1. Raymond James Financial, Inc., to become a bank holding company by acquiring 100 percent of the voting shares of Raymond James Bank, FSB, both of St. Petersburg, Florida, to be named Raymond James Bank, N.A., upon its conversion to a national bank.

C. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (Kenneth Binning, Vice President, Applications and Enforcement) 101 Market Street, San Francisco, California 94105-1579:

1. Castle Creek Capital Partners III LP, Castle Creek Capital III LLC, Eggemeyer Capital LLC, Ruh Capital LLC, and Legions IV Advisory Corp., all of Rancho Santa Fe, California, to acquire up to 19.9 percent of the voting shares of Guaranty Bancorp, and thereby indirectly acquire voting shares of Guaranty Bank and Trust Company, both of Denver, Colorado.

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 16, 2008.

Robert deV. Frierson,

Deputy Secretary of the Board.