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Originally posted by Managing Prime

I read on Marke*****ch that it was WAMU that is courting them. Makes more sense than Key.

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Originally posted by MisterVA

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Originally posted by Managing Prime

I read on Marke*****ch that it was WAMU that is courting them. Makes more sense than Key.

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Heard from my old boss and WAMU is not on the list of folks he has heard about. HSBC, RBS, TD & Wells were the other players mentioned. WAMU is tottering itself and is in no position to acquire anyone.

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Originally posted by Carpet Muncher

Since National City no longer does wholesale, will this have any effect on us anyway? Is this something we should care about?

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Originally posted by ML

KeyBank is a decendent of the former National Commercial Bank once headquartered in Albany, NY. It was run for 25 years by a friend named Victor J. Riley. His son Kevin and I were rugby teammates. Kevin was until recently an Ex. Vice President at Key, and is now CFO and Treasurer of Berkshire Bank in Pittsfield, MA.

To understand Key you have to look into the past. Key grew with a strategy of community banking, serving areas that were "under-banked" and issuing small loans to consumers and small businesses. When Key began it's aggressive growth in the early 80's it acquired small banks in areas that were growing, rather than gobble up larger urban banks that had slow growth rates and large troubled loans on it's books.

Key expanded first in the Northeast, then in the Northwest. It avoided the mess that money-center banks got into in the 80' with third world loans, also managing to avoid the agriculture loan troubles of the late 80's.

Key was a large mortgage presence in the early to mid 90's, but decided to sell their mortgage unit to Nations Bank in the late 90's. They determined, to be profitable in the mortgage business, you must be number one or two in mortgage servicing to achieve the efficiencies of scale necessary to turn a profit.

Key now concentrates on small business loans and other fee generating products like trusts. You won't find Key writing off Billions of dollars in bad loans, and I doubt they will buy Nat City, goes agains the Irish of Vic Riley!

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Originally posted by quasigovy

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Originally posted by ML

KeyBank is a decendent of the former National Commercial Bank once headquartered in Albany, NY. It was run for 25 years by a friend named Victor J. Riley. His son Kevin and I were rugby teammates. Kevin was until recently an Ex. Vice President at Key, and is now CFO and Treasurer of Berkshire Bank in Pittsfield, MA.

To understand Key you have to look into the past. Key grew with a strategy of community banking, serving areas that were "under-banked" and issuing small loans to consumers and small businesses. When Key began it's aggressive growth in the early 80's it acquired small banks in areas that were growing, rather than gobble up larger urban banks that had slow growth rates and large troubled loans on it's books.

Key expanded first in the Northeast, then in the Northwest. It avoided the mess that money-center banks got into in the 80' with third world loans, also managing to avoid the agriculture loan troubles of the late 80's.

Key was a large mortgage presence in the early to mid 90's, but decided to sell their mortgage unit to Nations Bank in the late 90's. They determined, to be profitable in the mortgage business, you must be number one or two in mortgage servicing to achieve the efficiencies of scale necessary to turn a profit.

Key now concentrates on small business loans and other fee generating products like trusts. You won't find Key writing off Billions of dollars in bad loans, and I doubt they will buy Nat City, goes agains the Irish of Vic Riley!

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Key was kicking the tires for a few months then walked.

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