HOW THE 4 SUPER-BANKS GOT SO BIG...

compiled by Rex Frankel, 1/19/2009

BANK OF AMERICA:

4800 branches, 15,000 ATM’s

Bought During the Bush Years: FleetBoston, MBNA, U.S. Trust, LaSalle Bank, Countrywide, Merrill Lynch

ACQUISITIONS:

Fed law change in 1956 forced spin off of Transamerica Insurance co.

Nevada N & L,

Harbor Security,

Montgomery Securities,

Robertson and Stephens,

and used to own Charles Schwab investment adviser co.-sold back to founder in 1986

1983-Seafirst

1986-Orbanco

1986-Diablo

1987-Rainier, but sold off after Security Pacific purchase due to monopoly concerns

1988-Hibernia

1989-Nevada First

1990-Gibraltar

1990-Mercury savings

1990-Mera Bank

1990-Western Savings

1990-Ben Franklin Federal Savings

1991-Southwest

1991-Security Pacific

1991-Valley Bank of Nevada

1994-Continental Illinois

1994-Arbor National

1996-Boatmen’s Bancshares

1997-Barnett Banks

1998-Nations Bank bought BofA, kept BofA name

2003-FleetBoston

2005-buys MBNA-credit card issuer

11/2006--buys U.S. Trust, a money manager, from Charles Schwab for $3.3 billion

4/2007 buys La Salle Bank Corp. From ABN Amro for $21 bil.

2007-buys Countrywide Financial

2008- buys Merrill Lynch stock brokerage

CITIGROUP:

Bought During the Bush Years: CalFed, Banamex

ACQUISITIONS:

1988- Bank of Arizona

Early 1990’s—Travelers buys Shearson Lehman Brothers, merging it into Smith Barney

1997-Salomon Brothers joins Traveler’s Group

1998-merged with Traveler’s Group brokerage and insurance co.

2000-Associates First Capital Corp

2002-CalFed/Cenfed/Glendale Federal/First Nationwide

2002-Spun off Traveler’s insurance, keeping brokerage and financial service divisions

2009-Citi to put Smith Barney in joint venture with Morgan Stanley (keeping 49% stake)

Grupo Financial Banamex, (#1 in Mexico)

Diner’s Club,

Carte Blanche credit card

Franklin Fund

WELLS FARGO

Bought During the Bush Years: Wachovia Bank

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Crocker-Citizens purchased from Midland Bank of UK

1987-Allied Bancshares

1988-Barclays Bank of California

1989-American National Bank

1989-Valley National Bank

1990-Great American Savings branches in Calif

1994-Bank of A. Levy

1996- First Interstate

1998-Norwest-actually, Norwest bought Wells Fargo and kept the Wells name,

1/2007-buys Placer Sierra Bancshares-based in Sacramento area-50 branches

5/2007-- buys Greater Bay Bancorp (SF bay area) for $1.5 bil, has 41 branches.

2008-buys Wachovia, which had taken over First Union, Corestates, First Atlanta, Jefferson National, Central Fidelity, 1^st United Bancorp, American Bancshares, Republic Security, Southtrust, Prudential Financial, Metropolitan West Securities, Westcorp, Golden West Financial, World Savings Bank, A.G. Edwards

Homefed Bank,

J.P. MORGAN CHASE AND COMPANY

Bought During the Bush Years: BankOne, Bear Stearns brokerage, Washington Mutual

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Texas Commerce Bancshares bought by Chemical Bank

1991-Manufacturer’s Hanover bought by Chemical Bank

1994-Margaretten Financial

1995-Chemical Bank buys Chase Manhattan, renamed Chase

1999-Hambrecht & Quist

2000-Chase bought J.P. Morgan and Co.

2004-Bank One/First Chicago/City National

2006-Collegiate Funding Services

2008--bought Bear Stearns stock brokerage

Chase Mellon Shareholder Services???,

--2008, bought WASHINGTON MUTUAL

ACQUISITIONS:

1986-Leucadia National

1986-Southern Home Savings

1987-First Commercial Savings

1987-Bowery Savings

1997-Great Western Savings

1997-Coast Federal

1998-Home Savings

2005-Providian National Bank

American Savings,

some branches of Western Federal and Household Bank

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SOME BANKING STATS:

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodMarketRpt.asp?barItem=2&sZipCode=&InfoAsOf=2008&SortBy=Market%20Share&reRun=Y

market share of banks in L.A. area

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodSumReport.asp?barItem=3&sInfoAsOf=2008

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/pdf/ddep_2008.pdf

there is $7 trillion in deposits in FDIC insured institutions

total deposits of bank holding cos. As of 6/30/2008

BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION 6,146 branches $701 billion

JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. 3,195 branches $497 billion

WELLS FARGO & COMPANY/WACHOVIA 6741 branches $715 billion

CITIGROUP INC. 1,079 branches $271 billion

Which totals $2.184 trillion or 31% of all deposits are in the top 4

(the FDIC does not list deposits for WaMu, so most likely they are counted in JPM’s total)

http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08085.html

at time of WaMu takeover by JPMorgan Chase, WaMu had $188 billion in deposits

http://www2.fdic.gov/sod/sodPFMarketRpt.asp?barItem=2&sCounty=all

number of offices in L.A. MSA—top 4 have 1142 branches out of 2481 total in L.A. metro area, or 46% of branch offices are the top 4 banks, BofA, WaMu, Wells-Wachovia and Citibank (JP Morgan not in the list as no presence in L.A.)

Temasek Holdings, owned by the government of Singapore, owned Merrill Lynch. When ML was sold to BofA, Temasek and the government of Singapore become a big owner of BofA. (America’s largest bank!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bank_mergers_in_the_United_States