New Dimensions to Bank Merger Law, The Supreme Court in the Mid-Seventies

• Author: Larry L. Williams
• Published date: 01 December 1975
• Date: 01 December 1975
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0003603X7502000401
• Subject Matter: Article

NEW DIMENSIONS TO

BANK

MERGER

LAW.

THE

SUPREME

COURT IN THE

MID.SEVENTIES

by

LARRY

L.

WILLIAMS·

I

By

far

the most significant developments in the field of

bank mergers in the eight years since I last wrote on the sub-

ject

for

this journal have occurred in the

last

two Court terms.

During 1974 and 1975, the Supreme Court handed down

opinions in three bank merger

cases-United

States v, Marine

Bancorporation.: United States v. Connecticut National Bank,2

and United States v. Citizens and Southern National Bank.s

From

these opinions, the

antitrust

advisor can derive afairly

clear idea of the new Court's view of mergers and other com-

binations in

industry

generally

and

in banking particularly.

II

Marine Bancorporation was the first of these cases. The

government had objected to the acquisition of the Washington

Trust

Bank (WTB) of Spokane by the National Bank of

Commerce (NBC) of Seattle, a wholly-owned subsidiary of

Marine Bancorporation, Inc. Washington

State

concededly

had a concentrated banking industry, which had remained

relatively stable over the years. NBC, a full-service bank,

was the second

largest

in the

state

in terms of

offices

and

total

commercial deposits." Fifty-nine of

its

offices

were in Seattle,

but

it

had expanded so

that

by 1971 it had

set

up nearly 50

offices

in other towns throughout the state. Only two of these

• Clifford, Warnke, Glass, McIlwain &Finney, Washington, D.C.

I418 U.S. 602 (1974).

a418 U.S. 656 (1974).

S95 S. Ct. 2099 (1975).

4

In

1972, it held 19.57 percent of the state's commercial banking

deposits

and

15.57 percent of the state's

offices.

At the same time, the

largest commercial bank, Seattle-First National, held 31.71 percent of

the deposits and 20.96 percent of the

offices.

699