Bank Merger This analysis examines various questio

It is argued that the merger likely began as an attempt by Wells Fargo to secure greater base market territory; yet this merger may also be an indication of future banking industry trends. The move reflected by this merger is described as one from a degree of higher personal service and less efficiency to less personalized service and greater efficiency.

San Francisco banking giant Wells Fargo recently acquired Southern California rival First Interstate, in what might be the biggest bank merger in history (because the Wells/First and the Chase/Chembank mergers involved stock swaps, precise valuations are a bit fuzzy), and is certainly the largest unsolicited bid (Mulligan, 1995, p. A1). Coming amid a period of rapid consolidation in the banking industry, Wells Fargo officials may have felt that the takeover was necessary in order to maintai

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ds and other financial service providers that do not spend as much on branch offices and personnel, banks are being pushed to cut costs. Wells has been an industry leader in replacing the traditional office-and-branch model with kiosk and home banking services. Thus, despite Wells Fargo's stated goal of "doubling 'customer contact points'" (Mulligan, 1996, D1), the closing of numerous branches (to be replaced by kiosks) can be expected. Additionally, in order to procure federal regulatory approval of the merger, several as yet unidentified branches will have to be sold, in order to preserve a competitive balance in key communities (Rosenblatt, 1996, D5). Aside from the closing and/or replacing of branches, there will be other customer impacts. While Wells Fargo customers are used to the low-maintenance, high-efficiency Wells approach, First Interstate customers will be forced to learn a new way to do their banking. Given the early reaction (Granelli & O'Dell, 1996, p. A1), many First Interstate may simply take their business elsewhere, probably to smaller, local banks. Those who take a wait and see approach and try out the new entity will have to choose between the speed and convenience of the Wells method and the slower,
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2073
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)