61.   Like most bank mergers, NationsBank has moved to slash costs by closing branches and firing people in order to boost earnings.

62.   Los Angelenos certainly are no strangers to bank mergers, given the spate of billion-dollar unions in recent years.

63.   Mathewson declined to estimate the cost savings, saying there was already too much nervousness about job losses due to bank mergers in the U.S.

64.   More importantly, investors have grown increasingly skeptical about the purported benefits of bank mergers and acquisitions.

65.   Most bank mergers involve stock swaps, which generally allow for a more favorable accounting treatment for the buyer.

66.   Most bank mergers are dry, routine affairs.

67.   Michael said he thinks bank mergers would help cut costs.

68.   Nationsbank chairman Hugh L. McColl Jr. is widely considered the master of bank mergers and is said to have been interested in Barnett for a long time.

69.   Not that he survived three bank mergers only to be told, upon returning from a family vacation, that he no longer had a job.

70.   Notably absent Monday was much talk of loan quality, the subject that only a few years ago dominated any discussions of bank merger.