Who acquired whom in the banking world?

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The National Information Center “provides comprehensive information on banks and other institutions for which the Federal Reserve has a supervisory, regulatory, or research interest including both domestic and foreign banking organizations operating in the U.S.” This website contains a database to help locate general and historical information on financial institutions.

Choose the “institution search” to query the database. Several field choices are available including name, state, type, RSSID ID, routing number, etc. Selecting the bank/institution of interest will produce a basic facts page. The researcher can then use the menu options to obtain a detailed history or chronological listing of acquisitions. Every event includes a date.

As an example, if you search “Associated Bank Menomonee Falls” the basic profile appears. Choosing “institution history” produces a summary of events including the fact that this institution was originally Farmers & Merchants Bank. Following the link to its head office (Associated Bank, National Association) leads the researcher to additional information including the Organization Hierarchy, Institutions Acquired and Branch Locator. In our Associated Bank example, by selecting the “Institutions Acquired” link, you would see that on November 5, 2005 Associated Bank acquired State Financial Bank.

Tip: Larger banks will produce LOTS of results, so it might be beneficial to be as specific as possible when using the database. Another option might be to search by routing number, FDIC certificate number or RSSD ID to avoid weeding through pages of results.