SunTrust is just one of many Georgia banks which are having problems today. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dated March 1, 2010, which cited data from the FDIC, Georgia banks suffered $3.2 billion in losses in 2009 and 63% of the state's 305 banks ended last year in the red.

Ken Thomas, an independent, Miami-based bank analyst and economist, says that Georgia has the largest number of problem banks in the US and the largest number of failed banks, he says. Florida has about 10% of all the problem banks in the nation, while Georgia has 15%.

As of year-end 2009, SunTrust Bank's Tier 1 leverage capital ratio of 7.51% was below the peer average (banks of similar size as SunTrust, which had $164 billion in assets as of year-end 2009, would be peers) of 8.67% and, in fact, is in just the 30th percentile for that peer group, says Thomas. Total past due and non-accruing loans are creeping up and stood at 5.83% as of year-end 2009, which again is higher than peers and above the 5% watchlist level," he says.

SunTrust has been having difficulties for a while, says Jaime Peters, banking analyst with Morningstar in Chicago. The bank is hurting for capital and it hasn't paid back the TARP yet, she says. SunTrust is one of the largest banks that hasn't, says Peters. The companies which have been allowed to repay TARP were making money, while SunTrust is losing money, she says. This is why management is going through various business lines and looking for non-core assets to sell, including a portion of RidgeWorth, "which would yield hard capital," says Peters.

"Most banks just raise capital in the stock market, while SunTrust sold off some of its Coke stock in 2008, because (the company management) thought their own stock was under valued, so they sold Coke instead."

In June of 2008, SunTrust sold 10 million shares of Coke's stock and donated 3.6 million to its charitable trust, while it had sold 4.5 million shares of stock in the spring of 2007. The company still has substantial Coke stock which it has agreed to sell.

SunTrust and Coke have had a relationship for the better part of a century. The bank's predecessor, Trust Company of Georgia, helped take Coke public in 1919. "Before 2007, SunTrust had not sold any of the soft drink giant's stock," says Peters.

In the long run, SunTrust's shareholders would be less diluted if the bank sells off other assets for good prices rather than selling their own shares below their long-term intrinsic value," says Peters.

"When you sell one of your most valuable assets, it is a sign," says Thomas. "The company's wanting to sell RidgeWorth is a continuation of their selling other valuable assets," he says. But he added that, "without a doubt, SunTrust's most valuable asset is its franchise of 564 Florida branches, out of a total of 1756, that figure as of June 2009."