A native of Greenville, Rusty Copsey holds a BS in Finance and an MBA from the University of South Carolina. Since 1990, he has worked in various commercial banking roles for Carolina First Bank, Wachovia Bank / Wells Fargo Bank, and First Citizens Bank focusing on customers located throughout the state of South Carolina. In addition, he taught as an adjunct instructor for Furman University’s Continuing Education Division from 1998 – 2021 and currently serves as a faculty member for both the South Carolina Bankers School and the North Carolina Bankers School. He was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for Furman University’s Continuing Education Division for the 2017 – 2018 academic year.
Extracurricular activities include cycling, running, hiking, touring craft beer breweries, and reading.
His spouse Maura is a Principal / Financial Advisor with CAPTRUST, a regional wealth advisory firm. They have been married since 1992 and have two children: Megan (25) who is pursuing her Master’s Degree in Sustainable Engineering at Villanova University in Philadelphia and Allison (22) who is a Wealth Management Analyst with the Bank of America Private Bank in Charlotte.
Education
- M.B.A. University of South Carolina - Columbia
- B.S. University of South Carolina - Columbia
Research Interests
- Behavioral Finance
Honors and Awards
- Outstanding Faculty Award for Furman University’s Continuing Education Division for the 2017 – 2018 academic year.
Additional Professional Activity
Employment at Carolina First Bank, Wachovia Bank, and First Citizens Bank involved credit underwriting of commercial loans to include loans to for-profit companies operating in a variety of industries, not-for-profit organizations engaged in a broad scope of activities, and commercial real estate property managers and developers. Daily activities included consulting with relationship managers and senior level management on debt structure and allocation; underwriting and approving new and renewal loan requests; reviewing financial statements and performing and analyzing cash flow analyses, projections and sensitivity analyses; implementing and executing relationship servicing plans; monitoring existing relationships to ensure acceptable credit quality while also looking to uncover additional business opportunities; and participating in business development activities and customer service engagements.
After the merger between Wachovia Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, employment transitioned to the comprehensive management of a diversified portfolio of distressed / high credit risk commercial loan and real estate loan relationships to ensure the satisfactory resolution of these relationships while protecting the bank’s assets and reputational risk. Customer facing daily activities included consulting with business owners, partnership members, company accountants, and legal counsel of both the bank and the borrower on the appropriate go-forward debt structure specific to the situation and overseeing the loan documentation process needed to facilitate the loan closing process. Internal bank daily activities consisted of reviewing financial statements as part of the underwriting and approval of new and renewal loan requests; analyzing primary and secondary sources of repayment; evaluating projections and performing sensitivity analyses; continuously monitoring existing relationships for credit quality; implementing and executing the relationship servicing plan; and participating in internal discussions with senior level management on the proper strategy in allocating capital to these higher credit risk relationships.
Academic experience includes teaching Business Finance, Personal Finance, Financial Markets and Institutions, and Investments Management.
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