Banking Giants To Merge

April 13, 1998 / 1:22 AM EDT / AP

BankAmerica Corp. has agreed to merge with NationsBank Corp. to create the biggest bank in the nation with $570 billion in assets, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

The merger, valued at about $60 billion, would bring the combined banks to 24 states and Washington with nearly 5,000 branches and about 15,000 automated-teller machines, the paper reported Sunday on its Web site.

NationsBank is based in Charlotte, N.C., and covers the Southeast to Maryland. BankAmerica spreads east from its San Francisco base. Both firms have operations in Texas.

The combination of NationsBank and BankAmerica is expected to be run for about two years by Hugh McColl, NationsBank's 62-year-old chairman and chief executive, before BankAmerica's 50-year-old chairman and chief executive, David Coulter, takes over, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.

The deal would complete the ambitions of McColl, who has worked to turn NationsBank into one of the nation's largest banks through aggressive acquisitions. He has long sought to link his bank with the Pacific.

NationsBank is the third biggest banking company, with $310 billion in assets.

The possible merger comes a week after Citicorp and Travelers Group Inc. announced their own $70 billion-plus merger to form the biggest financial-services concern in the United States or abroad. That company, including insurance as well as brokerage businesses, is expected to have assets of about $700 billion.