Thursday, January 18, 2007

On the acquisition trail

Well we had our fun with the Bank of New York Mellon merger and all the acronyms that gave rise to from BoNYM to MellB. The joke is getting a little tired now so it is time to sniff out some other acquisitions that may be on the horizon.

Once again the rumour mill has it that the major US banks JPMorgan Chase, Citi et al are sniffing around for acquisitions. Before Xmas, the rumour was that Bank of America was looking at Barclays.

With regulations such as SEPA, MiFID etc putting pressure on banks to consolidate in order to gain market traction or product expertise in a particular area, don't be surprised if we see some interesting cross-border amalgamations between US banks and European banks in the coming weeks and months.

The only thing is will it give rise to some interesting acronyms we can all have some fun with. And will the newly merged entity's headquarters be based "By the Rivers of Babylon?"

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