BankBoston
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BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. Bank of Boston had a venerable history dating back to 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 1999. In 2005, FleetBoston was purchased by, and merged into, Bank of America of Charlotte, North Carolina. After the sale of its Latin American branches in 2006, BankBoston currently exists solely as a subsidiary private bank owned by Bank of America.
Bank of Boston traced its roots back to the Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It was the first federally chartered bank in the United States.[1]
In 1786, the Massachusetts Bank financed the first U.S. trade mission to China, and in 1791, it financed the first voyage of an American ship to Argentina, establishing what would become a long-standing presence in Latin America. In the twentieth century, Bank of Boston would become the largest foreign bank in several major Latin American cities.
In 1864, the Massachusetts Bank was renamed the Massachusetts National Bank, and in 1903 the bank merged with First National Bank of Boston (founded in 1859), adopting the name of the latter. In the mid-twentieth century, the bank shortened its name to Bank of Boston.
In 1995, Bank of Boston announced a merger with BayBank, another local financial institution with a long history. Formerly the Old Colony Trust Company, then Baystate Corporation (1944), BayBank (renamed 1976) had been merged with First National Bank of Boston from 1929 to 1964, when it was sold off. Thus the merger was a reuniting of previously merged banks.
The combined bank, rebranded BankBoston in 1996, was a major financial institution both domestically and internationally, due in part to the Latin American holdings of Bank of Boston, where the old name was still used. Nonetheless, it would soon be subsumed by one of the many U.S. bank mergers that proliferated in the 1990s.
Boston-based Fleet Bank (originally from Rhode Island) acquired BankBoston in 1999, on the heels of acquiring Shawmut Bank just a few years earlier. Fleet now dominated the New England market, yet saw the value in maintaining the old Bank of Boston brand in Latin America.
The merged entity, FleetBoston Financial, adopted BankBoston's former Boston headquarters as its own. The bank had branches throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic states. In 2000, FleetBoston acquired Summit Bancorp of Princeton, New Jersey. The acquisition of Summit, New Jersey's largest remaining bank at the time, vaulted FleetBoston into the #1 market-share position in the state of New Jersey and provided critical mass in the Philadelphia metro area.
In 2005, FleetBoston in turn was purchased by Bank of America, which was looking to expand its East Coast presence. Bank of America chose to unload Bank of Boston's historic Latin American assets (still branded as BankBoston), in order to focus on becoming one of the largest U.S. domestic banks.
In 2006, Bank of America sold all BankBoston's Brazilian assets to Brazilian bank Banco Itaú, in exchange for Itaú shares. The BankBoston name and trademarks were not part of the transaction and, as part of the sale agreement, cannot be used by Bank of America. In August 2006, Itaú purchased BankBoston assets in Chile and Uruguay.[2] Operations in these countries continued to use the BankBoston brand until Banco Itau completed its takeover in Chile on February 27, 2007.[3], and in Uruguay on March 23.[4]
In December 2006, Argentina's central bank approved Bank of America's sale of BankBoston Argentina to South Africa's Standard Bank.[5] With the finalization of the sale on April 3, 2007,[6] the BankBoston brand ceased to exist in any branches.
BankBoston currently exists solely as an international private bank, a subsidiary owned by Bank of America.
[edit] References
- ^ BankBoston International (corporate web site)[1]
- ^ Brazzil Magazine, 10 August 2006
- ^ Business News Americas, 6 March 2007 [2]
- ^ Emerging Markets Economy, 26 March 2007 [3]
- ^ Boston Business Journal, 22 December 2006
- ^ Standard Bank (media release) 3 April 2007[4]
