Capital Briefs: Fed to Let 6 Banks Exceed 5% Stake in Honor

The Federal Reserve Board gave six Southeastern banks permission to acquire more than 5% of the voting shares of Southeast Switch Inc.

The Maitland, Fla., company is merging with Internet Inc. of Reston, Va., and Alabama Network Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., to bring together the Honor, Most, and Alert electronic banking networks.

Consumers will benefit from the larger ATM network through "broader and more convenient access to their deposit accounts," the Fed's Dec. 9 order states.

The six banks gaining Fed approval are Barnett Banks Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla.; Crestar Financial Corp. of Richmond, Va.; First Union Corp. and NationsBank Corp., both of Charlotte, N.C.; and Southern National Corp. and Wachovia Corp., both of Winston-Salem, N.C.

They are the largest investors among 38 banks that own a piece of the merged network, which will operate under the Honor name starting Jan. 1.

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