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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowBank of America likely will boost small-business lending in the Indianapolis area if it follows through on its $16 billion acquisition of LaSalle Bank, banking observers say. However, they believe it would delay building a retail branch network until it could buy another bank with an established branch presence, local experts say.
Jim Young, CEO of Indiana Business Bank, said Bank of America would build on the foothold established in
“I would expect BOA to come to a (market) like
LaSalle Bank is being sold to Bank of America by its Dutch-based parent, ABN Amro, as part of a larger deal considered to be the world’s biggest financial-services takeover.
In that deal, Barclays, the London-based bank giant, said it wants to buy the rest of ABN Amro for $91 billion. The deal is not a sure thing; ABN Amro said it would consider other offers.
In the
Bank of America helped pioneer the centralization of small-business underwriting, Young noted. As a result, the
That suggests Bank of America will scour the
However, Young doubts Bank of America, which is known more for retail banking than business lending, would start many of its own retail locations.
If the bank is serious about an
John Reed, president of investment banking at David A. Noyes & Co., agreed. He said Bank of America could buy Huntington or Indianapolis-based First Indiana Corp., which also has a strong local retail presence.
“I don’t think they’ll mess around building retail from scratch,” Reed said.
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