Popular bank's existence is Fleeting

The Bank of America Corporation, based in North Carolina, recently made a deal to buy out FleetBoston Financial Group, eliminating the last of the dominant Boston banks. This deal will erase the famous Fleet name, allowing Bank of America to take over in New England.

Fleet's history dates back centuries to the late 1700s, when Boston banks financed the shipping and textile industries. Then known as the Massachusetts Bank, it became the first federally chartered bank in the United States.

"This is a merger that makes a lot of sense, combining banks that operate in similar consumer sectors but in different geographic areas," Tufts Economics Professor George Norman told USA Today.

The Fleet-Bank of America merger has great implications for the city of Boston, including the thousands of college students who currently live in the area and use Fleet accounts.

Being a Fleet customer is currently extremely easy at the University: there are two Fleet ATM machines centrally positioned in the Mayer Campus Center. Students are constantly seen taking out twenties before running to catch the shuttle, grabbing a bite to eat from Hotung, or walking to class.

"Having my bank's ATM in the Campus Center makes things so much easier," sophomore Jessica Schwartz said. Schwartz, who is from Florida, decided to open a Fleet account upon arriving at Tufts. (Fleet Bank has few branches outside of the Northeast.)

For students like Schwartz who hail from Fleet-less regions, the Bank of America merger is beneficial.

"I went to Australia last year and had to use my mom's Bank of America card," senior Joy Reines said. "To make a Fleet transaction over there would have cost me five dollars every time I used an ATM, but Bank of America has a sister bank 'down under' so there was conveniently no charge to use a Bank of America card."

As Reines's experience illustrates, the Fleet-Bank of America merger could make bank transactions abroad and in other parts of the country (such as the Midwest and South, where Bank of America originated) hassle free and less expensive.

"[The merger] will be a good thing for me," freshman and Fleet accountholder Casey Beck said. "We don't have Fleet in Florida, where I'm from. Thanks to the merger, I'll be able to take care of financial things even over breaks: I can just go to a local Bank of America branch, instead of having to call Fleet."

According to an investment representative at the Somerville Fleet Bank, "for customers who have Fleet cards already, the transition should not affect them at all. The name will change but logically speaking, [their accounts] will just transfer to Bank of America -- it's just a small transition."

The representative was not allowed to give any information about the specific logistics of the takeover by Bank of America: "The transition will begin sometime late next year, possibly around June, and all the information will be revealed around then," he said.

Though students will be able to keep their Fleet student checking accounts, whether fees will change has not yet been decided. According to statements by Fleet officials, details on how Fleet's accounts will be restructured will not be announced until late 2004.

Most students currently using Fleet maintain that they would be willing to keep their current account as long as the prices did not increase and the quality of service did not decline.

"As long as they don't raise the prices or mess up my money, it's fine," sophomore and Fleet accountholder Liz Halperin said.

For many New England residents, however, the takeover of Fleet goes beyond the worries of what will happen to their savings accounts and ATM cards.

"Oh no!" sophomore Jackie Stone, who grew up near Boston, said. "As a sports fan, I'm upset: I don't want them to change 'the Fleet Center' to 'the Bank of America Center.'"

According to the Boston Globe, many other Boston residents, including Boston College Historian Thomas O'Connor, are upset by the disappearance of a Boston institution.

"I see this as one of a series of what I would regard as unfortunate movements of what had been essentially home-based and home-owned corporations now becoming either nationalized or internationalized," O'Connor told The Globe.

Some view the merger's nationalized implications more positively, however: "This merger also has the potential to spur the next merger wave in the financial sector after a two to three year period of relative quiet," Norman told USA Today, adding that "there are several other super-regional banks that could now appear as attractive targets for major banks looking to further extend their reach."

Patrice Taddonio contributed to this report.

@keywords: