Customers Hit Where They Bank by Merger

Harold Johnson’s first attempt to withdraw cash after the weekend conversion of his Security Pacific office to a Bank of America branch didn’t go well.

“I don’t even know where to stick this in anymore,” the 63-year-old Ventura resident said as he waved his new bank card at the automated teller in front of the new B of A branch on Main Street in downtown Ventura.

Johnson was one of thousands of Ventura County residents adjusting Monday to the changes wrought over the weekend, when the merger of the two banking giants took effect here.

Friday evening, eight Security Pacific and five Bank of America branches in the county closed, with their customers’ accounts transferred to the nearest branch of the now-combined Bank of America.

Although employees from the closed offices were transferred to nearby branches for now, a spokeswoman said the bank will begin laying off workers throughout the county in two months. She would not say how many layoffs are expected.

The merger of Bank of America and Security Pacific, the largest such combination in history, gave the bank $200 billion in assets, making it the second-largest U. S. bank after New York-based Citicorp.

As part of the merger, which formally took effect April 22, about 450 branches of both banks are closing and all remaining Security Pacific offices are being renamed Bank of America.

The changes are being implemented region by region throughout the state, and the conversion is expected to be completed by the end of April, said bank spokeswoman Julie Jasper.

The make-over came over the weekend for Ventura County.

At the 11 Security Pacific branches that didn’t close, the old sky-blue signs came down and the new deep-blue Bank of America signs went up. The county now has 25 Bank of America branches.

Armed with the new account numbers, new checks and new automated-teller cards that they had received in the mail, some customers gingerly approached the new Bank of America Monday to withdraw cash or deposit paychecks.

Some glitches occurred at the automated tellers, however, such as when Harold Johnson was trying to withdraw cash.

Although the machine offered no illustration showing customers how to insert their bank cards, Johnson, who had banked at the Security Pacific branch at that location for three years, figured that step out.

But he was one of at least two customers who didn’t get their cards back from the automated tellers after withdrawing cash.

Joan Marvel, a customer-service representative at the branch, said some customers may be forgetting to take their cards out because they are confused by the new machines.

“There have been some problems and there will be some problems,” she said.

Marvel said the most common complaint was that the new B of A checks they’d received in the mail were either of the wrong type or had the wrong information.

Some Security Pacific customers said Monday that although they had no problems with bank service, they were not happy about the merger.

“When I was a kid, I had a savings account at Security Pacific,” said Andrea McGee, 26, a Thousand Oaks resident whose Security Pacific branch on Moorpark Road was closed Friday.

“I know Bank of America’s old reputation. They almost went under,” she said, referring to the company’s financial problems in the mid-1980s.

“I just haven’t had the time to find another bank,” said McGee, as she prepared to use the automated teller at the B of A on Moorpark Road, where her account was transferred.

Another customer loyal to the old Security Pacific is Nan Loopesko, 64, of Ventura.

Loopesko, who had banked with Security Pacific since the 1950s, said she’s philosophically opposed to the merger.

“It’s just the idea of making it so big, so powerful,” she said.

But Loopesko said it would be too much trouble and too expensive to change banks.

“I hate contributing to the merger,” she said. But “I’m going to have to learn to like it.”

Some longtime Security Pacific customers, however, were nonchalant about the change.

Peter Lauer, 78, pulled into the parking lot of the former Security Pacific branch on Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks.

He was surprised to see that the bank was closed, its windows covered with brown paper and a sign announcing, “We have moved” to the Bank of America branch in the same shopping center.

But Lauer said he doesn’t mind the merger. He’s had accounts at both banks, he said.

“One’s as good as the other.”