Synovus, the parent company of Citizens Bank and Trust, has announced it will reduce its workforce by 9 percent, eliminating 650 jobs over the next two years as it streamlines and consolidates to a more efficient company.

In Carrollton, the layoffs will start Oct. 27 with 35 employees receiving severance packages when CB&T of West Georgia merges with two other Synovus banks, Alpharetta-based Bank of North Georgia and the Douglasville bank Citizens and Merchants, said Candy Glaze, vice president of retail sales. The Douglasville branch will also lose five people, she added.

“We don’t foresee any more after the 35 that we’ve already had to let go,” Glaze said. “It’s tough when anybody loses a job, but basically it was just our back-room support people because Bank of North Georgia already has their back-room operations.”

The layoffs hit the Carrollton and Douglasville offices earlier because of the merger. In the larger company, the first layoffs aren’t scheduled until Jan. 1, 2009, according to External Communications Manager Greg Hudgison.

However, more than half the reductions will be handled through attrition - by not hiring for positions as they are vacated and reshuffling employees within the company, he said. Synovus has already instituted a hiring freeze since April, he said.

CB&T of West Georgia, which will become Bank of North Georgia on Oct. 27, employs roughly 140 people at its nine branches, Glaze said.

CB&T has been doing business in Carroll County since 1903, when it was originally chartered as The Temple Banking Company. After closing during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the bank was re-chartered in November 1946 as The Bank of Temple. The bank began expanding to Villa Rica, Bowdon, Carrollton and in 1985 officially became part of CB&T Bancshares, which would later become Synovus Financial Corp. As CB&T of West Georgia, the bank picked up locations in Bremen and Tallapoosa and merged with Carrollton State Bank and Carroll National Bank creating a group of nine community branches.

According to Hoover’s, a business research Web site, CB&T of West Georgia generated $37.1 million in sales revenue in 2007, and Bank of North Georgia, which employs 552 people, generated $277.5 million.

The consolidation of the three banks will create a network of 48 locations with assets of $6.2 billion, according to a news release issued by the company.

Despite the layoffs, merging the three banks creates several positives for CB&T customers, Glaze said. It gives the customers 48 locations to do their banking. It also allows all CB&T customers access to the ATMs in Publix Super Markets, thanks to an agreement the Bank of North Georgia has with the grocery store chain, she said.

Synovus, which is headquartered in Columbus, began the process it’s calling Project Optimus in April 2008 to create “a more efficient organization that delivers greater value for its shareholders” throughout its network of 35 community banks.

The changes, including a 6-cent reduction in the company dividend, are expected to save the company about $50 million and generate another $25 million in revenue growth, according to a news release the company sent Sept. 10.

Synovus is centralizing its major operations, such as loan and deposits, to eliminate redundant work in bank back offices. The changes won’t affect the customers, Glaze said. The local consolidation of the three metro-Atlanta Synovus banks has been in the works for about 30 months and some of the consolidations have already occurred, Glaze said.

“We have already been using RPC (Regional Processing Center) for loans at Bank of North Georgia for well over a year,” she said. “There will be absolutely no effect at all on the customers.”

None of the branches in West Georgia will close, according to both Hudgison and Glaze.