Monday, January 26, 2004

Two more US bank mergers The US bank mergers keep on coming. The latest is Sovereign Bancorp, a mid-sized Philadelphia-based bank, which has announced it will acquire Massachusetts-based Seacoast Financial, in a deal that is worth around $1.1 billion. That extends Sovereign's range from Pennsylvania to New England, where the point is to compete against Bank of America's FleetBoston banks. Seacoast had just acquired Abingdon Bank (Massachusetts) and owns Nantucket Bank. Sovereign had recently bought First Essex Bank in the same state. Sovereign has long been seen as an "eligible bachelor" itself, so the move will increase its attractiveness. According to a Forbes magazine report, "Sovereign's accelerated asset gathering in the Northeast could also increase its attractiveness to non-U.S. suitors like Royal Bank of Scotland's Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank, London-based HSBC or a Canadian bank looking for a regional tie-up." Also announced today is the merger of two mid-size Southern banks.  Regions Bank, based in Birmingham, Alabama has acquired Union Planters Corp., based in Memphis.  The combined bank would be the nation's 20th largest by assets. The deal will cost $5 billion. The new combined bank will have assets of $81 billion in 15 states through the South and Midwest.  Once again, regional banks are finding it crucial to merge. 2004 already looks like it's going to be the year of furious consolidation in the banking sector, with deals like J.P. Morgan/Bank One and South Financial/CMB already announced since the beginning of this month. 6:04:47 PM

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