A YEAR OF BANKS MERGING AGAIN

Big bank mergers did more than create the nation’s first coast-to-coast bank in BankAmerica Corp.: They put some banks on the verge of becoming serious players in the investment field.

April was unprecedented in the annals of U.S. banking. The mergers of NationsBank Corp. with BankAmerica Corp. and Banc One Corp. with First Chicago NBD Corp. were announced on the same day. Just a week earlier, Citicorp and Travelers Group unveiled their landmark deal to create Citigroup, the audacious bank, brokerage and insurer combo. By the time Wells Fargo & Co. and Norwest Corp. announced marriage plans in June, big bank deals were becoming old news.

As with all mergers, these produced their share of casualties. Partners at Robertson Stephens Investment Management, the struggling San Francisco firm owned by BankAmerica, struck a deal to buy back their independence after the new BankAmerica (run mostly by NationsBank executives) couldn’t find a buyer for the unit. James Dimon, Travelers CEO Sanford I. Weill’s right-hand man, was forced out after clashing with former Citicorp CEO John Reed and after his Salomon Smith Barney unit had lost $1.3 billion in the third quarter.

But banks also established promising investment operations. The new Bank One, for example, manages more than $100 billion, equal to the new Wells Fargo.