Interception?
When PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh buys Cleveland's National City Corp., it will gain Ohio's largest bank but could lose some Nat City customers — rabid fans of football's Cleveland Browns — to KeyCorp.At least that's what Henry L. Meyer 3rd, Key's chairman and chief executive, hopes will happen. The rivalry between the Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers has been bitter at times, and some diehard Browns fans could adopt KeyCorp rather than let their Nat City accounts shift to a Pittsburgh bank, Mr. Meyer said Wednesday at the Merrill Lynch conference in New York. "Any time there is a merger or disruption in our marketplace" there is the potential for Key "to benefit," Mr. Meyer said.
"There is not a love affair between Cleveland and Pittsburgh," he said, "so there is a chance that that factor — Steelers-Browns — may enter in a little more disruption than might otherwise be there."
The deal is set to close by yearend.
Military Salute
For Veterans Day, U.S. Bancorp recognized the 1,400 employees of the Minneapolis company who have served in the military.Richard Davis, U.S. Bancorp's chairman and chief executive, held a conference call Thursday with all those employees who are either on active duty or have served in previous conflicts. It also handed out lapel pins — with the words "Proud to Serve" alongside an American flag — that replaced U.S. Bancorp's traditional logo representing its guarantee of five-star service.
"Each employee was given some recognition by their work unit this week," Mr. Davis said during his presentation Wednesday at a conference in New York hosted by Merrill Lynch. "It was our way of saying thanks to them for what they do, greater than perhaps their service to the company."
Father and Son
Jamie Dimon, the chairman, president, and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co., took a moment at the end of his otherwise sobering presentation at the Merrill Lynch conference to recognize a Merrill broker who was in the audience and whom he knows well, his father Theodore Dimon.The elder Mr. Dimon left Citigroup Inc.'s Smith Barney unit in August 2006 to join Merrill. At the Merrill conference there was no word on why he didn't go to work for his son's company or whether he plans to join Bank of America Corp. after it buys Merrill this quarter.
In the presentation, the JPMorgan Chase chief predicted rising unemployment, higher loan losses, and a recession that could be more grueling than the current credit crisis.
