Bank of America will officially mark its 21-billion-dollar purchase of Chicago's LaSalle Bank today, taking down LaSalle's green and yellow colors for the blue and red of Bank of America.
The nation's second largest bank by assets bought LaSalle Bank last year, picking up the unit of ABN Amro Holding Company, as Europe's biggest banks fought over the rest of the Dutch company. The deal fills a key gap in the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank's national coverage map, adding thousands of ATMs and hundreds of branch offices in Chicago and Michigan.
Customers will now have greater access to most of the bank's products and services in its banking centers. A complete system conversion will occur later this year.
In the coming weeks, LaSalle's roughly one and a-half million customers will receive new Bank of America-branded debit and ATM cards and will begin to see account statements displaying the Bank of America name. To help ease the transition, existing customer account numbers and information will remain the same.
