Mercantile Bancorporation
| Mercantile Bank | |
| Public | |
| Traded as | : MTL |
| Industry | Banking |
| Fate | Acquired by Firstar Corporation |
| Successor | Firstar Corporation |
| Founded | 1899 in St. Louis, Missouri as Mercantile Trust Company |
| Defunct | September 20, 1999 |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri |
|
Area served
|
Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Kentucky |
|
Key people
|
Thomas H. Jacobsen |
Mercantile Bancorporation was the largest bank holding company in Missouri when it was acquired by Firstar Corporation in 1999.
The Mercantile Bank of St. Louis was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850.
In 1996 its chief executive Thomas H. Jacobsen began a series of 24 acquisitions over three years increasing its assets from $15.9 billion to $35.8 billion. One of the biggest acquisitions was that of Mark Twain Bancshares in 1996.
At the time of its acquisition Mercantile was a $36 billion multi-bank holding company headquartered in St. Louis operating 500 locations in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Arkansas and Kentucky. Its individual components were:
In December 1964, the Mercantile Trust Company converted from a state‐chartered trust company into a national bank and was renamed Mercantile Trust Company National Association.
Mercantile Trust Company formed a holding company in 1970 called Mercantile Bancorporation to allow it to acquire other banks and to expand beyond St. Louis.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Mercantile was rapidly expanding through Missouri, mostly through the acquisitions of existing banks.
Starting in 1987, Mercantile began to expand outside of Missouri and into surrounding states. The first was Illinois, followed by Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Upon the retirement of Donald E. Lasater in 1989, Thomas H. Jacobsen, a vice chairman of Florida-based Barnett Banks, replaced Lasater as president, chief executive, and chairman of Mercantile Bancorporation.
As allowed under the various state and federal laws at that time, Mercantile was able to consolidate 75 separate bank charters that had existed in early 1996 to 17 by February 1998 in the five states that it was then operating in. The consolidation into a single bank was not completed when Mercantile was finally acquired in 1999.
In November 1991, Mercantile announced the pending acquisition of the St. Joseph-based Ameribanc with its American Bank subsidiaries for $87 million in stock. The acquisition by was completed in April 1992.
In August 1993, Mercantile announced the pending acquisition of the St. Louis-based United Postal Bancorp with its United Postal Savings Association subsidiary for $192 million in stock. The acquisition by was completed in January 1994.
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Wikipedia