WSJ: BofA to buy Chicago’s LaSalle Bank for $21B

Having spent 7 years as a banker and having a huge love for all things Chicago, I am quite interested to learn that BofA, (my former employer) is going to buy LaSalle Bank and become the largest bank in Chicago.

==================================

(AP) — Dutch bank ABN Amro NV has reached an agreement to sell its U.S. bank, LaSalle, to Bank of America Corp. for $21 billion, according to a published report. ABN’s spin-off of Chicago-based LaSalle Bank Corp. is part of negotiations for a separate transaction in which Britain’s Barclays PLC would buy ABN for more than $80 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday on its Web site, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

Buying LaSalle, which has more than 400 branches in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, would help Bank of America fill in a gap in its U.S. operations. Bank of America, the nation’s second-largest bank by assets, operates more than 5,700 branches coast to coast but hasn’t expanded significantly in the Midwest and holds less than 2 percent of the Chicago market. Bank of America and LaSalle’s combined operation would surpass longtime market leader, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which has more than 15 percent of Chicago deposits.