Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Minding Your Business: Big Bank Merger: Is Bigger Better?
Aired January 15, 2004 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. Another major bank merger is in the works.
With that, plus the big Enron plea deal, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Hey, good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Everyone made it in to work this morning, including the guys on Wall Street. And they are working hard -- a big bank deal in the works, as you suggested, Soledad. J.P. Morgan Chase buying Bank One for $58 billion. This comes just a few months after Bank of America buys Fleet. So, we see a trend here.
A big combination -- we're talking about $1 trillion of assets. That's a lot.
Here is how it stacks up. We're looking at now the No. 2 bank in the land, after Citigroup. You know, people are going to be saying, less choices out there. Let me tell you something. There are still thousands of banks, credit unions, S&Ls and companies that issue credit cards, so that's a bit of a red herring.
It's also a good sign for the economy. These mergers do not happen when CEOs are concerned about the future. That's another good thing.
The real bad news here, Soledad, I guess, is for people who work at the bank, because we are talking about possibly up to 10,000 job cuts, primarily at J.P. Morgan Chase in the New York area. So, that is not a good thing for the people who work there. But otherwise, you know, it's just one of these big deals that happens, and it's probably a good thing.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about another deal, but this time a plea deal. The Fastows finally make their plea deal. We knew it was happening yesterday. We talked about it.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And now we know a few more details.
SERWER: Right. Not a whole lot of surprises here. The Fastows did cop a plea yesterday. It looks Andy Fastow is going to be getting about 10 years in jail, his wife more than five months. They are going to be surrendering 29 million -- I wish I had $29 million just to forfeit.
O'BRIEN: Go give up.
SERWER: But I don't.
And what really is going on here is this is a classic prosecution thing. We can ask Jeff Toobin about it. You go after the smaller fish, then the bigger fish, and then the biggest fish, which will be Skilling and Lay ultimately.
O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Next time around, we're going to check in on the markets.
SERWER: Good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired January 15, 2004 - 07:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. Another major bank merger is in the works.
With that, plus the big Enron plea deal, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."
Hey, good morning.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning. Everyone made it in to work this morning, including the guys on Wall Street. And they are working hard -- a big bank deal in the works, as you suggested, Soledad. J.P. Morgan Chase buying Bank One for $58 billion. This comes just a few months after Bank of America buys Fleet. So, we see a trend here.
A big combination -- we're talking about $1 trillion of assets. That's a lot.
Here is how it stacks up. We're looking at now the No. 2 bank in the land, after Citigroup. You know, people are going to be saying, less choices out there. Let me tell you something. There are still thousands of banks, credit unions, S&Ls and companies that issue credit cards, so that's a bit of a red herring.
It's also a good sign for the economy. These mergers do not happen when CEOs are concerned about the future. That's another good thing.
The real bad news here, Soledad, I guess, is for people who work at the bank, because we are talking about possibly up to 10,000 job cuts, primarily at J.P. Morgan Chase in the New York area. So, that is not a good thing for the people who work there. But otherwise, you know, it's just one of these big deals that happens, and it's probably a good thing.
O'BRIEN: Let's talk about another deal, but this time a plea deal. The Fastows finally make their plea deal. We knew it was happening yesterday. We talked about it.
SERWER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: And now we know a few more details.
SERWER: Right. Not a whole lot of surprises here. The Fastows did cop a plea yesterday. It looks Andy Fastow is going to be getting about 10 years in jail, his wife more than five months. They are going to be surrendering 29 million -- I wish I had $29 million just to forfeit.
O'BRIEN: Go give up.
SERWER: But I don't.
And what really is going on here is this is a classic prosecution thing. We can ask Jeff Toobin about it. You go after the smaller fish, then the bigger fish, and then the biggest fish, which will be Skilling and Lay ultimately.
O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, Andy.
SERWER: You're welcome.
O'BRIEN: Next time around, we're going to check in on the markets.
SERWER: Good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
