BB&T Corporation (Branch Banking and Trust Company) is a financial service holding company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Its bank operates over 2,100 branches in 15 states and Washington, D.C., and offers consumer and commercial banking, securities brokerage, asset management, mortgage and insurance products and services. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States. Its subsidiary BB&T Insurance Services is one of the largest insurance brokers in the world.

In 1872, Alpheus Branch and Thomas Jefferson Hadley founded the Branch and Hadley merchant bank in their hometown of Wilson, North Carolina. After many transactions, mostly with local barbers, Branch bought out Hadley's shares in 1887 and renamed the company to Branch and Company, Bankers. Two years later, Branch, his father-in-law Gen. Joshua Barnes, Hadley and three other men, secured a charter from the North Carolina General Assembly to operate the Wilson Banking and Trust Company. After several additional name changes, the company finally settled on the name Branch Banking and Trust Company. Branch remained an active member in the company until his death in 1893. The 1903 Branch Banking and Trust Company Building at Wilson was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

BB&T sold Liberty Bonds during World War I and grew to have more than $4 million in assets by 1923. BB&T Insurance Services was added in 1922 and a mortgage division was added in 1923. Even though banks across the United States failed as a result of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, BB&T survived; it was the only one to do so in the town of Wilson.

In 1995, the bank merged with Southern National Bank, another bank with roots in the eastern part of the state. This gave BB&T 437 branches in 220 cities in the Carolinas and Virginia. The bank continued to expand nationwide through the 1990s, purchasing Fidelity Financial Bankshares, First Financial of Petersburg, Maryland, Maryland Federal Bancorp, and Franklin Bancorporation. In 1998, BB&T acquired MainStreet Financial of Martinsville, Virginia, and Mason-Dixon Bancshares of Westminster, Maryland, and further expanded into Georgia and West Virginia after purchasing First Liberty of Macon, Georgia, and Matewan Bancshares.

In 2005, the bank acquired Main Street Banks of metro Atlanta for $622 million.

In 2006, the bank acquired Coastal Federal Bank, based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

In February 2008, the company acquired Burkey Risk Services.

In April 2008, the company acquired UnionBanc Insurance Services.

In late 2008, the bank accepted $3.1 billion in bailout money through the sale of preferred shares to the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program. In June 2009, the bank repurchased the shares. Also in June 2009, its chairman, John A. Allison IV delivered a keynote address to a meeting of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, where he claimed to show how government regulation caused the financial crisis of 2007–2008.

In July 2008, the company acquired Puckett, Scheetz & Hogan.

On August 14, 2009, the bank acquired Colonial Bank after its seizure by the FDIC. This acquisition added more than 340 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Texas along with approximately $22 billion in assets. BB&T sold the Nevada branch to U.S. Bancorp in January 2010.

In December 2008, the company acquired J. Rolfe Davis.

In November 2009, the company acquired Oswald Trippe.

In September 2011, the company acquired Liberty Benefit Insurance Services, an agency operating in California. The company also acquired Atlantic Risk Management.

In November 2011, the company acquired Precept, an employee benefits consulting firm.

In February 2012, the company acquired the life insurance and property and casualty insurance divisions of Crump Group.

In July 2012, the bank acquired BankAtlantic, and its $2.1 billion in loans and $3.3 billion in deposits. The company also began selling flood insurance online.

In December 2013, the bank acquired 21 Citigroup branches in Texas for $36 million, adding $1.2 billion in deposits.

In March 2014, the company acquired Woodbury & Co., an insurance broker operating in the Carolinas.

In April 2014, the company acquired Caledonian Insurance Group, which specialized in insurance brokerage services for the aviation industry.

In September 2014, the bank acquired 41 more Citigroup branches, which added 123 branches and $5.3 billion in deposits.

In April 2015, BB&T subsidiary CRC Insurance Services acquired the assets of Napco LLC, a broker of catastrophic commercial insurance.

In June 2015, the bank acquired Bank of Kentucky for $363 million, which added $1.9 billion in assets and gave BB&T a presence in the Northern Kentucky-Cincinnati market, and its first branches in Ohio. The also company sold American Coastal Insurance and increased its ownership in AMRisc.

In August 2015, the bank acquired Susquehanna Bank for $2.5 billion, adding 240 branches and $18.7 billion in assets, and marking the bank's entry into Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

In April 2016, the company acquired Swett & Crawford, a wholesale insurance broker.

In April 2016, the bank acquired National Penn for $1.8 billion, which added 124 branches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, $9.6 billion in assets, and $6.7 billion in deposits.