Bank of America, Wells close mergers as banking transforms

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Reuters

Source: Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp completed its purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co and Wells Fargo & Co finished buying Wachovia Corp, the latest sea changes in a transformed banking industry facing dire economic times ahead.

The Merrill takeover was completed on Thursday, ending more than 94 years of independence for the Wall Street investment bank and brokerage. The Wachovia merger closed on Wednesday, marking the denouement for a lender that started in 1879 with what it deemed a "very adequate" $100,000 of capital.

Bank of America has said it would issue about 1.71 billion common shares to buy Merrill, equal to about $24.1 billion, plus 359,100 preferred shares. The Wachovia merger valued that bank at roughly $12.7 billion.

By adding Merrill, Bank of America vaulted over JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc to become the largest U.S. bank by assets, with about $2.7 trillion. Wells Fargo ranks fourth, with about $1.4 trillion. Bank of America and Wells Fargo are also the largest U.S. mortgage providers.



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[Cleita]

1. Well, there goes the neighborhood.

Bank of America offers mediocre banking services and charges more for them from any dealings I have had with them. I really hope the Obama administration really looks into breaking up these mega corporations into smaller sizes, like we used to have when businesses were well regulated and America was considered the richest country in the world. Remember those days when every one who worked could aspire to the American dream? Well, when Americans are nickeled and dimed for every service they have to use and their wages are reduced by the very same corporations who are hosing them, the American dream has gone down the drain.

[comtec]

2. Hmmmmmm... BofA is starting to look like a... what's the word... MONOPOLY!

I can't seriously believe the SEC .. .. .. nvm i can believe it...

Christ remember when bullshit like this was at least challenged by the SEC on the SURFACE, to at least PRETEND to be doing their job?

god help us all!

[Lindsey]

3. Crap...I'm with Wells Fargo and like them and have NEVER

liked B of A due to many, many reasons (customer service being one). I will change banks if this happens.

[glinda]

4. We are with Wells also...

I did not like when they were "forced" to take money. I am concerned about what is happening with them. Our service has gone down the toilet with them in the last two months. Our investments are controlled by them as they have hubby's retirement money. I wish we could take our money out without paying a lot in taxes. It really doesn't seem fair as all we would want to do is move it to somewhere else.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. Wells was forced to take money? I thought they instead got a tax break

I didn't read about Wells being forced to take money.

Wells is one of the banks that didn't make foolish decisions to later be paid for by
we the taxpayers.

Wells buying Wachovia is a good thing, because more jobs will be saved.

Wells does not have branches in the locations that Wachovia has, and Wachovia's home
office is based in North Carolina, where the cost of living is much lower than
the West Coast.

Wells doesn't like offshoring, so it is possible that some of the Wachovia customer service
jobs will be returned from India.

[wroberts189]

10. I believe you can move it without a tax penalty..

whether its a 401k or ira..

http://www.google.com/search?q=moving+a+401k&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

[glinda]

20. Wells was told

that they had to be at the table at the meeting. This was rather abrupt notice I heard. THey said they did not need the money but were told that they HAD to take it because if they came back at some point and needed some, they might not get any. I thought the whole thing smelled

[glinda]

21. And thanks for the link to retirement monies too. Will do some reading.

[Scooter24]

5. BofA and Wells are not merging.

You should have nothing to worry about.

[Dr.Phool]

7. I guess I have Wells Fargo now.

I've been with Wachovia, and always liked them. We'll see.

[Mudoria]

15. Same here.. being a Wachovia client

for 12 years and I'm pretty sure I'll change to a local bank since Wells has bought Wachovia. I'm not interested in banking with a California based bank.

[Oerdin]

11. They were bust.

Both Merrill and Wachovia were distress at the last second to avoid them closing down and going into liquidation.

[bertman]

8. Repeat after me: TOO BIG TO LET FAIL.

[jwirr]

9. But also to big and complex to succeed.

[L0oniX]

12. Manager at SunTrust told me Wachovia clients were leaving in droves...

because a lot of people hate Wells Fargo and I don't blame them. I hate em too and BOA and suck go donkey balls.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

17. I have friend at Wachovia, they are glad Wells bought the bank

Wells Fargo operates the way the old Wachovia does.
Steady.

We may keep thousands of jobs thanks to this merger, as opposed to if
Wachovia had gone bankrupt (it was about to thanks to former CEO Ken Thompson)
or if Citibank had bought them.

Citi loves to ditch employees.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

18. and there's no overlap of Wells Fargo and Wachovia branches

so the branches should run the same.

Hopefully operations will run better, since once the dust settles,
employees will for once in over 5 years have some idea of where they stand.

For more than 5 years Wachovia employees went to work each day wondering if
they would get layed off.

[Mind_your_head]

13. So we are just that much closer to one big bank, called "Bank" n/t

[LeftyMom]

14. In unrelated news, my credit union is still perfectly stable and comparatively small

I can't recall them ever charging me a fee for anything, and their customer service is very good.

[Nikki Stone1]

19. Credit unions are great alternatives.

Bank of America still hasn't figured out how to merge their East Coast and West Coast systems so that money is available instantaneously. I'm on the West Coast: If I deposit cash money into an East Coast account of a family member, he has to wait a day or two for it to be available on the East Coast. On the other hand, if I deposit that same cash into my West Coast account, it is available immediately. B of A is a huge bank who is too cheap to merge their computer systems after over a decade: Sovran Bank (based in NC) merged with Bank of America (CA) in 1998. Sovran was the east coast, B of A was the West Coast. Sovran actually took over the whole company but got to keep the B of A name with the deal. The shitty service is actually Sovran Bank executives' fault. Ten years of two different computer systems on two coasts. And very poor customer service as a result.

[glinda]

22. We want to put everything into our Credit Union and take it out of Wells with

as little loss as possible.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Now up to bank #5 for me...

First Pennsylvania --> Corestates --> First Union --> Wachovia --> Wells Fargo.

Sigh. :eyes:

I now have an account with a local credit union.