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player ready...Bank One Corp.’s planned sale to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. hasn’t slowed expansion plans for the Chicago-based bank.
Bank One will spend $55 million this year to open 30 new branches and replace 550 teller machines in the Chicago area, the bank announced Thursday.
“We continue to invest in Chicago because it is such an important market for us,” Charles Scharf, chief executive of retail for the bank, said in a statement.
Nine of the new branches–four in Chicago and five in the suburbs–are scheduled to open by the end of March. When the expansion is complete, Bank One will have 280 branches and 1,250 ATMs in and around Chicago and northwest Indiana.
The bank is the largest in Illinois, with about 16 percent of the market.
Most of the new branches will be in storefronts rather than new buildings. That’s a trend accelerated by Seattle-based Washington Mutual, a newcomer to the market that has opened 92 branches since last summer by moving exclusively into existing space.
The ATM replacement is part of a three-year effort that began in 2003. In addition to replacing machines, about 50 will be added.
A spokeswoman said the plans won’t be affected by the planned $58 billion sale of Bank One to J.P. Morgan Chase.
Of course, it’s possible some of those new branches won’t carry the Bank One logo very long. Whether the Bank One name will survive the sale has not been decided.
Security-Mutual merger: The name of Security Bank of DuPage will disappear next week, when that bank’s merger with Harvey-based Mutual Bank is completed.
The change has been planned for some time, said Amrish Mahajan, Mutual president and chief executive officer. He and his partner, Pathinaidu Veluchamy, opened Mutual Bank in 1998. Veluchamy also owned Security Bank, which is based in Naperville.
Merging the banks under one name makes sense, Mahajan said.
“The whole idea is it will take advantage of having one name and cut some costs,” he said.
The new bank will have eight locations and almost $400 million in assets, Mahajan said. It has found a niche serving immigrant and minority areas.
“We’re a community bank focused on the local neighborhoods,” he said.
His bank is one of the few in the Chicago area that may have benefited from the media blitz that accompanied Washington Mutual’s arrival in the market. “People call thinking we’re Washington Mutual,” Mahajan said.
Harris on prowl: Many bankers get coy when asked about their acquisition plans, refusing to provide a straight answer about their efforts to buy other banks.
Not the people who run Harris Bank. Frank Techar, president and chief executive officer of Harris, didn’t shy away from talking about the bank’s plans this week when announcing a deal to purchase the eight-branch New Lenox State Bank.
“We’ve been pretty clear that we’re going to grow through acquisitions in a very disciplined way,” Techar said. “We’re going to focus on targets of up to $2 billion [in total assets] in value in Chicagoland and the Midwest.”
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That $2 billion threshold puts most community banks in Chicago on Harris’ potential shopping list.