Dartmouth students with Fleet Bank accounts will return for the winter to find their branch on South Main Street supplanted by a Bank of America. Yet, while the face of the building will bear Bank of America signs, service changes from the perspective of the customer will be minimal.
While Fleet and Bank of America's $47 billion merger officially occurred on April 1, the banks won't fully integrate until next winter. The two banks, however, have already fully combined their ATM systems, meaning that customers of both banks already have access to a combined pool of over 16,000 ATMs. When the full integration of the companies is complete, customers will have complete access to about 5,700 branches, executives of both banks have said. The exact date of the effective changeover for customers won't be announced until sometime in the fall, when Fleet will begin advertising the switch.
Hanover Fleet branch manager Robin Mazejka was upbeat about the merger, predicting that the changeover to Bank of America will be a smooth one.
"I think that this merger is going to be a great thing for Dartmouth students," Mazejka said.
But students said they don't anticipate that the merger will affect them personally.
"I don't think the services are going to change much," Theresa Zhou '07 said. "As long as my service isn't adversely affected, I'll be happy."
Others said they saw possible future benefits from the bank's growth.
"I don't use any Fleet ATMs so it won't affect my use in Hanover. But, it could definitely help after graduation in bigger cities," Minkun Zhang '07 said.
Dartmouth students who set up an account at the branch will receive five years free checking versus the one year they've received in the past. Student accounts will have no minimum balance but will be charged $7 per month without direct deposit and $5 per month with it.
Bank of America originally made its $47 billion bid on October 27, 2003, but the merger wasn't approved by regulators until March 9.
The merger forms a bank with $96.5 billion in equity and $166 billion in market capitalization. It will likely result in the dismissal of 9,000 to 11,000 employees.
