Dead Bank Walking: One Gutsy Bank's Struggle for Survival and the Merger That Changed Banking Forever

by Robert H. Smith

Dead Bank Walking is a stunningly candid portrait of the historic merger between Security Pacific Bank and Bank of America, a combining of two giants that set in motion the fever of banking marriages we now witness. This book not only answers the WHO, WHAT and WHY of the mega-merger, but stands alone as an object lesson on all mergers. It evokes the humor and frantic chaos surrounding a deal that is still regarded as either a brilliant coup or a tragic swan song to banking sovereignty and independence. In Dead Bank Walking, Robert H. Smith, former Chairman and CEO of Security Pacific (and later President of Bank of America) spins a tale that will enthrall business people and mesmerize readers who never thought they could be interested in an epic about bankers. Part business thriller and part interpersonal drama, the story details the final paroxysms of a 120 year old institution revered by Wall Street for its leading edge thinking and entrepreneurial spirit--until it got into trouble. Dead Bank Walking begins innocently enough when Smith assists real estate developer Charles Keating in his acquisition of Lincoln Savings. This act and the resulting S&L crisis trigger a chain reaction of legislation, regulatory crackdowns, and economic difficulties that threaten the very existance of Security Pacific. The story includes a virtual Who's Who of politics and Wall Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, Alan Greenspan, Bill Seidman, Carl Reichardt, Pete Wilson, Bob Campeau, Chris Hemmeter, Peter Ueberroth and many other movers and shakers. Dead Bank Walking shuttles the reader from elaborate bankers conventions in Hawaii to contentious Board Rooms. It peeks through the crevices of high finance, as Smith and Richard Flamson--an outspoken and gutsy chairman dying of a rare blood disease--embark on a strategic acquisition spree that ultimately extends the bank's vision to include worldwide securities companies and a controversial and ultimately dangerous Merchant Bank. Too far too fast? Absolutely. When economic recession pounds California and Security Pacific's stock slides, consultants warn management to halt the acquistions and if possible locate a merger partner. If Smith can't, the Board will find someone who can. A potentially momentous merger with Wells Fargo Bank falls through at the eleventh hour and an uncanny sequence of events brings Security Pacific to the brink of disaster. Smith's colorful management team labors to solve the problems and ultimately embarks on a year-long odyssey with Richard Rosenberg, Chairman and CEO of Bank of America. Smith recounts in vivid detail, the triumphs, disasters, mind-games, insults, ego trips, walk-outs, and layoffs as he and Rosenberg work, sometimes at cross purposes, to create the most powerful bank in the United States, often in the face of ridiculous forces that seek to derail the merger at every juncture. Near the end, Smith realizes that he stands to lose everything--from his personal wealth to his reputation--should the deal collapse. In a final life and death episode, he faces a potential $1 billion penalty that may represent a material breach of the merger agreement. Smith partners up with brilliant attorneys for an almost hallucinatory last dance with the Internal Revenue Service in order to preserve the merger and save his own scalp. And lingering beneath the deal is the unfathomable bureaucracy of Bank of America, a foreboding maze of committees which in the end destroys the most unique and valuable assets of the institution it works so hard to acquire. Fifty percent comedy, fifty percent tragedy, Dead Bank Walking is an exhilarating, timely and supremely unique business story populated by a cast of characters one would expect to find only in a work of fiction. Read it, and never think of your bank--or the people who run it--in the same way again.

Genres: Business

426 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you lived in Southern California during the 1970's and 1980's, 5 banks and S & L's probably come to mind: Crocker, United California (UCB)--which became First Interstate, Bank of America, Security Pacific, and Wells Fargo.

This is the story of two of those banks, and it is not a happy read. It's about the death--most likely, preventable--of Security Pacific, and the second birth of the bank that would become one of the nation's largest: Bank of America. I knew of the merger when it was occurring, but banked elsewhere, so I paid little attention to it at the time. I found the book to be an interesting behind-the-scenes look at a corporate merger.

[Aaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more things change, the more they remain they same

This is a stellar chronicle of one of the largest (and mostly forgotten) mergers of the 1990s between the fifth-largest bank and Bank of America. It does a masterful job of detailing out the complex dynamics and motivations of bankers, regulators, leaders, and Donald Trump.

Interestingly, it seems to almost precisely describe the causes and patterns of later bank crises, from the mega-mergers of the late nineties & early 2000s to the real-estate-driven 2008 crisis, one that saw Bank of America undergo further change & mergers, while still retaining, for the most part, the Bank culture.

[Monzenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that I probably rate higher because of its charm rather than its quality of information. Don't get me wrong; the stories about the slow death of Security Pacific and it being acquired by (merged with?) Bank of America is there, and no doubt the book is from the perspective of the, ahem, losing leader. Still, the voice of Robert Smith was highly readable, with lots of anecdotes about what was once a notable bank on its way to effective insolvency. The interactions with staff, regulators, and the opposite number are noteworthy. It is as much a satisfying read as a convincing read.