The analysts said BB&T's shares have fallen 27 percent since Sept. 24, compared with a 31 percent slide in the KBW Bank Index. They reiterated their "underperform" rating on the stock.

"The credit outlook remains challenging, as October business trends (consumer and business demand) saw a precipitous drop," they said.

The analysts expect operating results to be hurt by deteriorating commercial real-estate and commercial & industrial credit quality in the long term.

However, BB&T is a "have" in the longer term, the analysts said.

BB&T is better positioned than its Southeastern peers to navigate through the present credit cycle, given its relative reserve coverage and under-exposure to stressed housing markets, and opportunities to grow by taking share from dislocation in its markets, they said.

BB&T is interested in buying banks with assets ranging from $3 billion to $15 billion, but the company believes the U.S. Treasury's capital purchase program has delayed the sale of franchises and reduced the availability of targets, the analysts said after meeting with the bank's management.

Shares of the Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based company closed at $28.05 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Amiteshwar Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott) Keywords: BB&T/RESEARCH FRIEDMAN (amiteshwar.singh@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters Messaging: amiteshwar.singh.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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"After taking all factors into consideration, we came to the conclusion that GMT Planet was the clear winner, offering the most complete and flexible solution that was not only the most attractive in terms of investment payback period, but also in terms of other key factors, such as ease of implementation and impact to the financial centers," said John Charles Thompson, BB&T's EVP of Branch Operations. "GMT has truly delivered on their promises--we've been able to meet our aggressive cost-cutting targets to date while maintaining our service quality by having the right people, in the right place, at the right time. As we continue to phase-in our increasingly flexible staffing model, we expect to deliver the same high level of service throughout our entire financial center office network with significantly fewer FTEs, eventually representing very significant bottom line labor cost savings in excess of 15 percent annually without impacting our ability to deliver high-quality customer service."

A strong and stable bank with over 30,000 employees in the Carolinas, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Indiana, and Washington, D.C., BB&T ranks among the top 15 bank holding companies in the US in terms of total assets, largely due to the company's aggressive acquisition strategy. With the changing dynamics of the industry--combined with industry benchmarking data revealing higher than average financial center office teller utilization--the organization turned to workforce optimization to shrink labor costs in the branch. Post-deployment customer satisfaction surveys and other feedback tools validated that BB&T's high client satisfaction scores remained unchanged after shifting to the new GMT-enabled workforce operating model.

"As the financial services industry looks for ways to weather the current economic storm, banks are struggling with how to run as lean as possible without negatively impacting the customer experience and revenues as they attempt to navigate to safer ground," commented Simon Angove, GMT's chief executive officer. "As this pressure continues to mount, institutions like BB&T are learning that now may be the best time to invest in workforce optimization technologies like GMT Planet. As BB&T demonstrates, reducing costs and boosting service quality are not necessarily conflicting goals. With an investment in GMT Planet, they can truly realize the best of both worlds by ensuring that they operate as efficiently and nimbly as possible by making the absolute most of their existing resources."

Regarded as the industry's most accurate, easy-to-use and affordable workforce management solution, GMT Planet is in use at a number of leading banks and other financial services institutions throughout the United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand to schedule contact center agents, tellers, sales staff and branch management personnel. With its unparalleled ease of use designed to accelerate rapid acceptance by front-line users throughout the bank, the award-winning workforce optimization solution is highly configurable to the specific requirements of each client, ensuring accurate scheduling and significantly reducing ongoing operating costs.

ABOUT GMT

GMT's workforce management and performance optimization solutions create competitive advantage by enabling companies to improve customer service and sales across their enterprise, while decreasing their labor expenses. The company's product line combines precision forecasting and intelligent scheduling with powerful analytics and performance management tools -- together delivering a complete solution that can be deployed throughout a company's contact center, branch office, and back office departments and is priced to deliver rapid return on investment. GMT serves enterprise clients across multiple vertical industries worldwide, including Country Home Products, Nielsen Media, Bank of the West, Zions Bancorporation, Ingenico, West Midlands Police, Contact 1-2-1, and Yarra Valley Water, among many others. GMT is a recognized industry leader in client satisfaction due to its unique SureServices client care methodology. The company is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and offices in the U.K., Australia, and India. For more information, visit www.gmt.com.

(C) 2008 GMT Corp. All rights reserved. All materials provided, regardless of form, are the exclusive property of GMT Corporation. GMT Corporation's products may be covered by one or more United States, European or other International patent or application. GMT, GMT Planet, "Accurate. Easy. Affordable.", "Workforce Optimization for the WHOLE Enterprise", "SureServices", "SureStart", "SureCare", "SurePerform", "Delivering on the Promise", "GMT On-Demand" and the GMT Planet logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of GMT Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: GMT Corp.

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