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PHILIP MORRIS SUPPORTS BANK CONSORTIUM
F. Harrison Poole, treasurer, Philip Morris Incorporated, signs $3,500,000 credit agreement established with twenty-eight minority-owned banks. Looking on approvingly, left-to-right, Edward Silcock, assistant treasurer, Philip Morris Incorporated; Sharnia "Tab" Buford, president, Freedom National Bank, New York; Vernard W. Henley, president, Consolidated Bank & Trust, Richmond, Va., and Poole.
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$3.5 MILLION MINORITY BANK CREDIT LINES SET BY PHILIP MORRIS
Philip Morris Incorporated has established a $3,500,000 credit agreement with 28 minority-owned banks in the United States.

The announcement, made by F. Harrison Poole, treasurer of Philip Morris, explained that the new Philip Morris credit agreement consists of two loan "packages" of $1,750,000 each, which has been distributed amoung the 28 minority lending institutions through two agent banks-Consolidated Bank & Trust Company, Richmond, VA, and Freedom National Bank of New York.

Poole said: "Our decision to seek the new $3.5 million credit facility amoung minority-owned banks was a logical extension of Philip Morris's and its subsidiary, the Miller Brewing Company's continuing minority banking program and one that makes sound business sense. From the inception of Philip Morris's minority-owned banking program in 1963, we have always recognized the need for a positive action plan that would strengthen the full-service banking concept of these banks.

"The agreement reached by Philip Morris with 28 banks comprising this new $3.5 million credit facility makes sound economic sense for all of us. It strengthened both the income-producing capacity of the banks and their scope of commercial services, while providing Philip Morris with an additional line for credit in the banking community as a whole."

In 1970, the Federal Government initiated its Minority Bank Deposit Program, having as its first year's goal the creation of $100 million of new deposits in these banks that had increased to $155 million, of which $36 million were in Federal funds.

It is against this background that Philip Morris has deposited funds in minority-owned banks across the country.

A beneficial fallout of the Federal program has been a more than tripling in the number of minority-owned banks since 1970 while deposits in these banks increased almost five-fold.

In addition to its normal demand deposit accounts in minority banks, Philip Morris Incorporated and Miller Brewing Company make extensive use of minority-owned banking facilities for federal income and FICA (Social Security) tax payments. For example, during November and December 1977 alone, the corporation deposited tax payments of $52,750,000 in a group of minority-owned banks. These payments, made by Philip Morris Incorporated, Miller Brewing Company and Philip Morris Industrial, went to banks in Greensboro, NC; Louisville, KY; Milwaukee, WI; New York City and Richmond, VA.

Such payments, in effect, provide banks with interest-free government deposits during the next five years, according to a recent announcement by the Department of the Treasury.
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SANSOM ELECTED TO HEAD MECHANICS AND FARMERS BANK
J.J. Sansom, Jr., senior vice president and Raleigh's city executive of Mechanics and Farmers Bank was named president of the bank. Sansom succeeds John H. Wheeler who died recently.

Sansom first came to Mechanics and Farmers Bank in the summer of 1938 after graduating from Morehouse College. He worked as a summer trainee before returning to Atlanta University for graduate work. In 1939 he returned to Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

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[[caption]] J.J. Sansom

From 1947 to 1952, Sansom taught in the law school at North Carolina Central University. From 1952 to 1958, he was the officer in charge of the Third Street office of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company in Winston-Salem. Sansom returned to Mechanics and Farmers Bank in 1958 as vice president-manager of the Raleigh office. In 1968 he was appointed senior vice president-city executive officer.

Sansom has served as chairman of the Wake County Board of Elections, the Raleigh Board of Adjustments; a member of the Raleigh Civic Center Authority; the board of directors of the Raleigh Merchants Association; a charter and board member of Meadowbrook Country Club, Inc.; a board member of Wake County Opportunities, Inc. and also a member of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina. He has served as a member of the board.

He is a member of the North Carolina Banking Commission, the National Bankers Association, board of trustees of Saint Augustine's College, the Finance Committee for the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, the Executive Committee of the Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, member of the NAACP, director of the Wake County Sheltered Workshop, a member of the board for Wake Health Services, Inc. and the Bloodworth Street YMCA. Sansom is also a member of the North Carolina Bankers Association.

Sansom is married to the former Vivian Merrick of Durham and they have two sons and two daughters. He is a native of Atlanta, Georgia.

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