Associates to Put Its Mark On 77 Former Fleet Branches

Now that Associates First Capital Corp., Dallas, has completed its purchase of all 77 Fleet Finance branches, the real work can begin, company executives say.

The major task, as they see it, will be to convert the culture of the branches to Associates' highly personal style of doing business. They say the cultural change will help the offices do more business.

"Associates' culture is very face to face, and it's a culture that's very concerned with cost," said Lehman Brothers analyst Michael Millman.

Associates First, which is 81% owned by Ford Motor Co., makes consumer loans - including personal, home equity, and credit card - through its sprawling branch network.

The company's purchase of Fleet Finance's offices, most of which are in the Southeast, provides a way for Associates to fill in gaps in its branch coverage, executives say.

The Fleet Finance branches had been on the block for more than a year. They offered similar products to Associates' and feature almost identical customer profiles, analysts say.

In Associates hands-on, high-touch, cost-controlling style, branch employees will handle all business functions, including finding customers and servicing loans. Previously, Fleet Finance's Atlanta-based customer service center would deal with borrower questions and hound late-paying customers.

Associates sends experienced employees to a newly acquired branch for about a week to teach the branch how it does business.

Former Fleet Finance branches will be split between Associates' First Family division and Associates Financial Services. Both divisions use storefronts to make home equity and personal loans.

The company promises that no one is going to lose a job in the near future. This promise comes despite analysts' predictions that the purchase of the predominantly southeastern Fleet network would cause some overlap with Associates' more than 1,500 branches.

Almost all of Fleet Finance's 350 former employees have elected to stay with Associates.

"We don't see a lot of consolidation happening," said Thomas R. Slone, executive vice president of Associates. "We're not in the habit of buying offices to close them down."

Closing retail branches doesn't make sense in the long run, he said, because it turns away longtime customers. "You lose that face-to-face relationship," he said.

Associates is contacting all of Fleet Finance's customers to make sure they are comfortable with the service they received in the past, a spokesman said.

Associates bills itself as a skilled acquirer. In the past four years, it has integrated more than 500 different retail loan outlets into its branch system.

"Associates is very opportunistic," Mr. Millman said. "The company is very disciplined, and the management has done an excellent job growing receivables."

The Fleet Finance acquisition brought in an additional $1.2 billion in receivables for Associates, predominantly in home equity loans.

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