Fleet Hires Veteran Lender Away from Bank of Boston

James C. "Jamie" Lewis will join Fleet Financial Corp. as the head of media and communications lending, concluding a 14-year career at local rival Bank of Boston Corp..

Mr. Lewis is expected to add credibility to the media group at Fleet, and his departure is considered a blow to Bank of Boston's growing corporate finance business.

The move is one of many skirmishes in the battle for middle-market customers in the competitive banking environment of New England.

"Fleet is very much looking forward to competing in that market against the Bank of Boston, and they feel they have a much broader product line," said Anthony R. Davis, a bank analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds. The hiring of Mr. Lewis is Fleet's way of saying "take that," he said.

Prior to a recent four-year stint as the head of loan syndications, Mr. Lewis led the media group for 10 years at the Bank of Boston.

Indeed, Mr. Lewis was busy in the last year, helping the bank become the No. 1 syndicator in leveraged transactions of $50 million to $250 million.

"Jamie is an extremely good lead banker who finds a way to get a good deal done," said Buzz Mitchell, the president and chief executive officer of Daniels Communications, Denver.

Daniels Communications, a cable television operator, had not relied on Fleet as a lending institution in the past, but "there will be an opportunity now," Mr. Mitchell said.

Until the bank finds a replacement, John Giannuzzi, managing director of corporate finance, will lead the loan syndication group.

Mr. Davis said that the hiring of Mr. Lewis is consistent with Fleet's strategy of building incremental revenue.

"Fleet is trying to create some niches where it gets better pricing and increases its penetration with the middle-market customers," Mr. Davis said.

In New England, there are 2,700 companies with sales of $50 million to $500 million, and 46% of those use Fleet for at least one product, Mr. Davis said.

Less than 20% actually borrow money from the bank. "The idea is to try to improve cross-selling and continue to focus on some of these specialty areas," the Dean Witter analyst said. generate incremental revenue, you have to seize on it," Mr. Davis said.

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