A former Wachovia Corp. CFO with an eye for acquisitions figures to play a prominent role when Mellon Financial and Bank of New York complete their $16.5 billion merger sometime next year.
After the move, which was announced early Monday, Robert P. Kelly, currently president, chairman and chief executive officer of Mellon, will serve as chief executive officer of the new company.
Before joining Mellon in February, he spent five years as the finance chief of Wachovia Corp., where he’s credited with leading the bank through a series of large acquisitions, according to The New York Times.
In fact, he served as CFO of First Union for five months before that bank agreed to merge with Wachovia in 2001. Previously, he spent 19 years with Toronto-Dominion Bank, where he served as a vice chairman and head of the retail and commercial bank.
When the merger is completed, the new company will be called The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.
The two companies said they would become the world’s leading asset servicing company, with $16.6 trillion in assets under custody, and corporate trustee with $8 trillion in assets under trusteeship. The merged bank would rank among the top 10 global asset managers, with more than $1.1 trillion in assets under management.
Fitch Ratings seemed to like the deal. The rating agency affirmed all its ratings for the two companies and revised the rating outlook of both companies to “positive.”
“The transaction, when consummated, will make the combined company a dominant global securities servicing and asset management franchise,” it explained. Fitch added it does not expect any other rating changes immediately after the close of the merger.