As part of its move to centralize operations across the company, Columbus, Ohio-based Banc One Corp. has formed a council of eight commercial bankers to oversee commercial lending products and operations.
However, the bank said it would like to leave many decisions about commercial lending in the hands of local managers.
Rather than name a national manager of commercial lending, the $90.5 billion-asset bank said it has appointed Tyree Miller, former president and chief executive of Bank One Dallas, director of the commercial banking council.
Mr. Miller will remain in Dallas and report to Bank One Texas chairman Ronald Steinhart, who oversees operations in Texas and Oklahoma.
In an interview, Mr. Miller said the council will make recommendations about ways to standardize loan products and operations. But, he added, specific decisions about credits are better left to Banc One's 59 subsidiary banks. "Middle-market lending is best executed on the local level," he said.
Banc One's bread-and-butter business is lending to companies with $25 million to $125 million in sales per year. "That's been Banc One's hallmark for some time," Mr. Miller said. The company has never been considered a big-business banker.
At Banc One, the shift away from a loose organization of subsidiaries has been a year in the making.
For 25 years previously, Banc One ran what it called an "uncommon partnership," in which each banking unit was given autonomy to make decisions. Last year the company reversed that strategy, saying it would reorganize and create national lines of business. The bank's commercial lending unit is one that will remain partially intact.
"There is more than one way to win at banking," said Joseph Stieven, an analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. in St. Louis. "The fact Banc One has chosen this strategy isn't as important. How it executes it is the most important aspect."
A company spokesman said the creation of the council will continue a streamlining of the bank's commercial lending business.
"A year ago we would have 20 different ways to do five things," said Banc One spokesman John Russell. "Today, we have five different ways to do five things."
Mr. Russell said other traditional banking areas, such as consumer lending, will be standardized. "We'll look at everything else from a national perspective," he said.
Larry Helm, executive vice president and manager of commercial banking for Bank One Dallas, was promoted to replace Mr. Miller as president of the Dallas region.
Mr. Miller, who is 42, headed the Dallas operation for 10 years and will have the additional title of vice chairman of the local bank.
