ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 29, 1996 TAG: 9603290060
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
Customers of Chemical, First Interstate, Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi Bank will likely have to learn some new names to find their money Monday. It won't be an April Fools' gag, either.
Three huge bank mergers are set to be completed Sunday and Monday, April 1, creating new leaders in world and U.S. banking. For those who track such things, the deals together are worth about $60 billion and involve assets of more than $1 trillion.
What does that all mean for customers of the combining banks? It depends on whom you ask.
Community activists worry branch closures resulting from the mergers will cost jobs and deny some low-income communities access to capital. The banks argue they'll be able to deliver better, more efficient service.
``If you're a customer, you'll probably see a new name on your checks and credit cards and so forth,'' said Raphael Soifer, a banking analyst at the brokerage firm Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
``I don't really see any big changes in the marketplace itself that consumers will see,'' he continued.
For bank workers, it's another story altogether.
The merger of Chemical Banking Corp. and Chase Manhattan Corp., creating the nation's biggest bank, will cost 12,000 jobs. Wells Fargo & Co.'s purchase of First Interstate Bancorp will eliminate up to 10,000 positions, analysts estimate, though the bank hasn't provided a tally.
Mitsubishi Bank Ltd.'s merger with Bank of Tokyo Ltd., which will form the world's biggest bank, will bring an unspecified number of jobs cuts at least to the two banks' California subsidiaries.
``The two American ones, both of them are mergers driven by cost-cutting, massive branch closings and layoffs,'' said Matthew Lee, executive director of Inner City Press/Community on the Move, a community organization based in New York City.
``As far as we're concerned, it's very difficult to say it's a good thing,'' Lee said. ``In fact, it's not.''
The first thing customers will need to get straight are the banks' new names. Chemical and Chase will take the Chase Manhattan name. First Interstate will become part of Wells Fargo. Bank of Tokyo and Mitsubishi will become Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB