Not as strange as people deeply concerned about “losing” their mortgage when financial institutions were at risk in 2008.
Maybe not always so silly. Sometimes there are horror stories.
Bank of America Refuses to Cash Eighty Year Old Woman’s Bond.
This story got fairly widespread play in the news back in 2007.
TL;DR: Couple bought $5000 bond 20-some years ago. Bank got bought by another bank which later got bought by another bank (repeat for several iterations) and finally got bought by Bank of America.
Fast forward to 2005 or so: Husband is dead. Wife is 80-something in an poor health, needing to move into assisted care. Son is trying to manage this. They try to cash the bond (now worth $30K). BofA has no record of it, and refuses to honor the actual certificate that is now in the son’s possession. Lawyer accuses them of stonewalling. (ETA: As of the time this was all over the news, they had been fighting the bank for at least two years with no success.)
(No, I haven’t seen anything about how this ever turned out.)
I’ve been with the “same” bank for 25 years, though it’s gone through three separate mergers / acquisitions.
The first two didn’t affect the routing number or account number on my checking account, though the first of those did change the bank’s name (which got reflected when I ordered my next box of checks).
The last merger, when US Bank purchased Charter One, three years ago, did finally lead to a change in the account number and the routing number.
Through each of those mergers, my accounts got transitioned to slightly different accounts (checking and savings accounts) with the new banks. I never had an issue with losing any money from my accounts, but there were changes in some of the terms in the accounts.
When we moved to Connecticut in 1982 we opened an account in Connecticut Bank and Trust. Our account is still in the same building it’s always been in but it’s five banks later
1985 CBT merged into Bank of New England
1991 seized by FDIC to prevent bankruptcy and merged in Fleet
1999 Fleet merged into BankBoston
2004 BankBoston merged into Bank of America
2008 Bank of America buys Merrill Lynch but keeps the name BoA.
We never lost a cent or had to do anything but get new checks when the old ran out. Now we might have had to get new checks before our ran out if we hadn’t used them, but we still pay most of our bills by check and not online so we do go through them faster than some of you younguns.
My balance was unaffected, as was my account number.
First Union to Wachovia to Wells Fargo and nothing changed. WaMu to Chase, same deal.
Yes until earlier this year I was using my original stack of checks from Fleet (with a 6-moves-old address printed on them). They merged with BoA in 2004.
I don’t write checks very often.
My wife inherited an account and some CDs from her stepmother on a smallish Florida bank, Flagler about 30 years ago. It underwent a number of mergers. The names Wachovia and Core States come to mind and there may have been another. It eventually ended up at Wells Fargo. They never opened a fake account as they did for many others, but they were very inventive at discovering new fees and then cancelling them when we (I became a joint holder) threatened to close the accounts. Eventually, we closed the account and cashed the CDs paying a significant penalty to do so. Although in principle, it was possible to close a CD in the first month after it matured, it was impossible to do so living in Canada since only a notarized order would do and a Canadian notary was not acceptable. Absolutely ghastly company to do business with. But to answer the OP, there was never any problem with continuing the account and the CDs also transferred with no action on our part.
Similarly, we had an account with a small Seattle bank that was acquired by Bank of America, but the only change was the new bank card would now work in any BoA ATM anywhere in the US, which was and is very convenient. But a couple years after the merger we tried to deposit a fairly large check into a BoA branch in NYC. The deposit slip asked you to check the state in which your account was and WA was not one of them. It took the bank manager calling some central office to work out how to do it. Presumably, this is all sorted out now.
Related matter: This relative has wanted to transfer funds from the credit union account to a regular checking account in a bank. I have been in touch with my sister about this; from what she tells me, we need to follow certain rules about this–making an electronic transfer, which I can even effect on my computer at home–so that there is no tax liability from the transfer.
As per many replies above, a merger has no affect on account balances. Out of curiosity, what did your relative think would happen?
Funds from what kind of account? Unless they are moving IRA funds or CD’s, I can’t think of any tax ramifications from transferring money. If it is an IRA, the CU can tell you how to transfer funds without incurring tax liability. If it’s CD’s the money can’t be transferred, the certificates will have to be cashed out. That could incur penalties and possibly have tax implications based on interest earned.
According to the statement I read, it’s a regular savings account.
I have read about mergers and similar acquisitions in which the acquiring company declines to assume the debts and other obligations of the other company. This relative has no expertise in the operations of businesses; I majored in law in college.
I had savings and checking with Bank One, which was acquired by Chase. The transition was completely unnoticeable. I had a mortgage through a bank that was acquired by PNC, they unfortunately did not wipe out my balance.
Huh? If you transfer funds from one account to another, as long as both accounts belong to the same person, why would there be tax liabilities? We’re not talking about a 401k or something…
We hope you enjoy our newly remodeled lobby. We have taken a small token from each depositor’s account to make this dream a reality.
Thank you,
Your Bank
The most unexpected thing that happened to me when my bank merged with another bank was that my wife was replaced with a POD. 
When my wife and I got married I had her name added to my account. A few years later the bank was acquired by USBank. After that, I noticed that in the address block on my statements, instead of
My Name
Wife’s Name
Address
City State Zip
It was now
My Name
POD
Address
City State Zip
Somehow during the merger she got dropped from the account, and we had to jump through all the hoops again to get her added back in. (However, nobody was ever able to explain the whole POD business…)
Considerably worse customer service.
For some reason, the new bank technologically siloed the old bank customers so there were different web & phone logins for us than for their other customers. This led to confusion every time I did need to reach their crappy customer service.
There were also new and higher fees. And new account numbers. And new terms for my accounts (which were less beneficial).
But the actual balance wasn’t touched.
I’m not a banking expert, but I think that’s a completely different sort of situation.
Among other things, bank deposits are insured by the FDIC. Even in cases of bank insolvency, when the FDIC steps in and takes control of a bank (which often results in the bank itself going out of business, and being sold to a different bank company, like what happened with Washington Mutual), the individual depositors’ account balances are protected (at least, up to a certain, large sum, currently $250,000).
I understand why your relative is nervous, but the government, and the FDIC, take the stability of the banking industry very seriously.
**amarinth’s **situation seems to be specific to the acquiring institution, but having your bank acquired can put you through some rocky times. I remember when my bank was sold in the 1990s. At the time of the switchover, a few of my deposits went into limbo because of IT snafus. That was all I needed to switch banks.
I’ve just realized today that my Scottrade Bank account will simply cease to exist early next year. Scottrade was bought by TD Ameritrade, and my brokerage accounts should transfer nicely, but the checking account will either be rolled into my brokerage, or sent out as a check to me. This seems rather dumb, given that TD Bank bought the Scottrade Bank accounts.
As I mentioned several posts above, when a bank goes bankrupt and its assets are acquired by another bank (as, for example, when WaMu crashed and was bought by Chase), it’s the investors in the original bank that lose it all. Their stock in the bank becomes worth the paper it’s printed on, if even that.