Jun 27 2008
A Tale of Two Banks (And One City)
Bank of America has taken more than $6.5 billion in write-downs of securities linked to shoddy mortgages and has drastically downsized its investment bank and cut more than 3,000 jobs. Wachovia has posted $5.3 billion in market-related write-downs since last summer and is downsizing its own investment bank. It has cut 500 jobs so far and slashed its long sacrosanct dividend.
Since Mr. Thompson’s ouster, rumors have whipped through Wall Street and Charlotte’s Tryon Street - which divides the city’s downtown into unofficial Wachovia and Bank of America territories - that Wachovia was open to a buyer. Charlotte is fretting over whether it can remain the last great U.S. banking center outside of New York.
This really worries me. I don’t work for either Wachovia or Bank of America, but I do work for a bank in an office on Tryon St just a block away from BOA’s headquarters and another two blocks from Wachovia’s. What’s going on with these two banks should concern every man, woman, and child in the Greater Charlotte region. Yes, there is more to Charlotte than Bank of America and Wachovia, but let’s face it. They made this city what it is. They started the mass migration to Charlotte by people all over the country. Other industries in the area have prospered through their success. What will happen to this area if they collapse?
