Louisiana Bank Trade Groups ToMerge

BATON ROUGE, La. - (12/15/05) Hurricane Katrina continues to haveeffect financial institutions in Louisiana, or, in this case, theirtrade groups. The Louisiana Bankers Asociation and the CommunityBankers of Louisiana have agreed to merge, pending approval ofmembers. The new group will operate under the Louisiana BankersAssociation name. The LBA has 168 members, the community bankershas 85 (75 of which also belong to the LBA). According to TheAmerican Banker, the merger would be at least the ninth betweenstate bank and thrift trade groups since 2000.