Bank One
Bank One, based in Chicago, Illinois, is the sixth-largest bank in the United States. It trades in the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol ONE.
2004 Merger controversy
On January 15, 2003, the company announced that it is being bought out by J.P. Morgan Chase in a $58 billion merger. This merger was announced a few months after the proposed merger of Bank of America and FleetBoston banks.This awoke concerns about too much consolidation of the banking industry. Chicago critics worried about the headquarters move to New York City feared less local charitible giving, higher fees, and less small business lending.
Mega-bank critics contend that, for example in Texas, the fact that one in five dollars put into a bank would be held inside the combined JP Morgan Chase-Bank One creates a potentially dangerous situation for regulators, and can create an oligoply.
The banks contend that they are not banks at all anymore since the passage of the Gramm Leach Biley Act, but rather financial services companies, and that their market share in Texas in financial services would be more along the order of 3 percent.
