Consolidation in Missouri Prompts Small Banks to Fish For Experienced

Union Bank of Illinois hopes Dennis Bielke is its ticket to the big leagues.

With ambitions of becoming a regional player, the $77.9 million-asset Swansea-based bank reached across the Mississippi River to pluck Mr. Bielke from Boatmen's Bancshares, St. Louis. Mr. Bielke's status as president of the Boatmen's East Region had been thrust into limbo during NationsBank Corp.'s acquisition of Boatmen's, which closed Jan. 7.

Mr. Bielke, who becomes Union's president Feb. 1, plans to leverage his big-bank experience to bring Union into Missouri and amass $160 million of assets by 2000.

"We're looking to establish ourselves as a bank that is highly focused on individual service and with having a personal touch," said Mr. Bielke, who had been Boatmen's senior official in Illinois for 10 years.

Mr. Bielke is one of the more high-profile examples of how the seemingly overnight consolidation of the Missouri banking industry is bolstering the staffs of community banks across the heartland.

"Community banks have a chance to pick up some pretty good people with good contacts and a high level of experience who would be willing to take a pay cut," said Michael Ancell, an analyst for Edward Jones, a St. Louis brokerage.

There are going to be plenty of people to pick up-in Missouri and in the other nine states where Boatmen's had a presence, observers said.

The bloodletting already has begun at post-merger NationsBank. A spokeswoman said the Charlotte, N.C., giant would eliminate 4,700 of the combined companies' 84,000 jobs during the next three years. But she declined to identify where cuts would be made.

More Missouri bankers will lose their jobs this quarter as Mercantile Bancshares digests Mark Twain Bancshares and Roosevelt Financial Group Inc., Mr. Ancell said.

Most community bankers who have hired from consolidating giants look for people who can help them grow and improve profitability. Albert O'Brien, chairman of Union, is no exception.

"We're very much interested in growth," he said. Mr. Bielke "knows a lot of people, and he has an excellent reputation." Mr. O'Brien also has hired two bankers from Mark Twain in the past year.

Hard numbers on how many Boatmen's bankers are winding up in community banks are impossible to obtain. But anecdotal evidence indicates that small banks across Boatmen's 10-state territory are at least looking. Boatmen's had a presence in Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas.

Back in St. Louis, Mississippi Valley Bancshares has hired three commercial lenders from Boatmen's backyard, said Andrew Baur, chief executive of the $1 billion-asset banking company. It may scoop up more.

"We'll have to see how things shake out," Mr. Baur said. "Everybody's been getting resumes."

BancFirst Corp., Oklahoma City, has scored big, too, said chief executive David Rainbolt. The $1.2 billion-asset company has acquired a handful of lenders, a chief financial officer, a chief counsel, and a senior regional executive from the Boatmen's Bank IV affiliate.

"I don't think we're finished," Mr. Rainbolt said.

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