Truist Bank was officially created through a monumental, multi-billion-dollar merger of equals between two major American regional financial institutions: BB&T Corporation, known formally as Branch Banking and Trust Company, and SunTrust Banks, Inc. Both constituent banks operated independently for over a century with expansive retail and commercial networks throughout the American Southeast. Following the completion of this landmark 2019 business combination, corporate leadership elected to retire both the historic BB&T and SunTrust brand identities, officially adopting the newly created name Truist to symbolize a unified, forward-looking commercial banking entity that combined the long-standing financial legacies and operational footprints of its two historic predecessor companies.