preview

How Did Wachovia Evolve

Better Essays

Founded in Winston Salem, North Carolina by William Lemly on June 16, 1879, Wachovia Bank grew quickly due largely to the accounts and success of RJ Reynolds Tobacco. RJ Reynolds, also based in Winston Salem, was one of the largest tobacco companies in the United States. Continuing on their growth, Wachovia’s first big merger was with another North Carolina based bank, First Union National Bank, on April 16, 2001. This deal made Wachovia the 4th largest bank in America. Continuing their growth through mergers and acquisitions, Wachovia completed deals with many other financial companies, including the insurance giant, Prudential, and another bank for $14.3 billion, SouthTrust Corporation. In Wachovia’s first attempt to buy a large mortgage loan bank, MBNA, they lost to rival Bank of America. After this very competitive loss, Wachovia wanted a mortgage lending company so badly, they looked in 2006 towards a larger and even more expensive acquisition, Golden West Financial. They closed the …show more content…

The run on Wachovia started when Washington Mutual, another bank largely owning home mortgages, started to go under on Thursday, September 25th, 2008. The day after that, Wachovia’s Chief Executive at the time, Bob Steel, called Citigroup Bank’s CEO to try and make a deal so Wachovia would not be completely destroyed. At the end of the day, Wachovia’s stock price had dropped 27%, and $5 billion in deposits had been withdrawn. After a week, there were only $2.4 billion of deposits left, causing the bank to eliminate many employees, and importantly, they could no longer receive short-term financing. As a bank typically lends more money than they have in deposits, they must finance the difference. With the huge run on deposits, they could not finance the operations or the loan losses of the bank. This created a quick spiral

Get Access