Tale of Two Banks

In 1811 Congress failed to renew the charter of Manhattan's original (and real) Bank of the United States. Encouraged by the withdrawal of Government competition, powerful men in Manhattan contemplated founding new banks. In 1812 two were launched. One was Bank of America, whose first president was Oliver Wolcott, onetime (1795-1800) Secretary of the Treasury. Its capital was $6,000,000, its office on the corner of Wall & William Streets. The other was National City Bank, started with $800,000 in capital.

Ten years after it was founded, Bank of America moved to Greenwich Village because of the yellow fever raging in the Wall Street district. It soon moved back to its old site and has been there ever since. In 1908 National City Bank moved to the corner diagonally opposite Bank of America. The years saw a great change in the destinies of these two banks. National City grew and merged and grew until it became, for a period, biggest bank in the world. Its capital today is $110,000,000. Although many famed tycoons have been executives of Bank of America, including Preserved Fish who became director in 1812, it fell behind National City in size and prestige. In 1928 it was believed that Nathan Jonas of Manufacturers Trust and his brother, Ralph, were negotiating for control of the institution. Unexpected was the announcement that Amadeo Peter Giannini of California had grabbed large blocks of the stock. With these opening wedges, Banker Giannini was able to place control of the bank in Transamerica by 1930.

This year has not been kind to Bank of America. Last spring there were heavy withdrawals from the bank. As soon as Transamerica announced it planned to withdraw from banking except as an investor, Wall Street guessed that Bank of America would merge soon. With a feeling of relief it learned last week that National City will acquire its neighbor through an exchange of stock.

Transamerica's 63% holdings in Bank of America will be transformed into an 8.7% interest in National City by the deal. At present dividend rates, it would receive $2,224,000 a year in dividends from the National City stock against the $1,853,000 paid formerly by Bank of America. Its National City holdings will be the largest single block, amounting at current values to $1 3/4 on each of Transamerica's 24,605,000 shares. Stockholders in Bank of America will retain their proportionate share-for-share interest in Bancamerica-Blair Corp., investment affiliate. The book value of these shares is estimated at $7. On Oct. 2 the Clearing House reported Bank of America had net deposits of $164,305,000 against National City's $1,252,351,000; the total of $1,416,656,000 compares to Chase's $1,419,159,000 on that date, showing National City back in second place, whence Guaranty Trust dislodged it in March.

The deal was a purchase, not a merger. The famed old name of Bank of America will pass out of Manhattan banking. There will be no major change in National City's personnel as a result of the deal. Still chairman will be Charles Edwin Mitchell, once loudest of bulls, now very silent about everything. President will still be Canadian-born Gordon Sohn Rentschler, 45. President Rentschler's most important contact with National City came after the War. His firm had sold much sugar mill machinery to Cuba where National City had large interests. He was consulted by the bank on practical problems, made a director in 1923. Two years later he became a vice president and President Mitchell's No. i assistant, succeeding him in 1929. With National City's present trend apparently toward greater concentration on commercial banking, President Rentschler is becoming more & more dominant in the bank's activities.

Lesser Merger. Definite plans were under discussion last week for absorption of Liberty National Bank & Trust Co. by Hibernia Trust Co. Both are in Manhattan. Liberty was founded in 1923 by William Crapo Durant who later sold out to Herbert J. Yates & associates. They con trol the bank through Setay (Yates backwards) Co. Inc. These banks merged would have resources of $46,500,000.

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