BB&T: we're not like other N.C. banks.(North Carolina)

BB&T CEO John Allison flew from Winston-Salem, N.C., to the hustle and bustle of post-NATO Washington to let the city slickers know they have a home with the porch light burning on Tobacco Road.

"We are very excited about our opportunities in this market, [but] we have to prove we're different," Allison said at the bank's annual meeting April 27 at the Mayflower Hotel in D.C.

Specifically, BB&T does not want to be classified with the triumvirate of North Carolina-based banks - Bank of America, First Union and Wachovia - that have been stereotyped as running roughshod over a booming Washington market, changing the names of local institutions, firing employees …