Deregulation and the loss of the headquarters

1983 – 1998

The thrifts go first: On 30 November 1983 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's histories record a single day's work: the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Fort Wayne — the city's own, established 1933 — the American Federal Savings and Loan Association, and the Fort Wayne Federal Savings and Loan Association, established 1968 on Bluffton Road, were all merged into the Standard Federal Savings and Loan Association of Troy, Michigan. Fort Wayne's home-grown thrift headquarters ended together, six years before the national savings-and-loan crisis peaked; no Fort Wayne-chartered thrift remained to face 1989.

The 1983–93 bank mergers: The same year the bank side began to gather: in 1983 the Peoples Trust line and the Indiana Bank (the old Dime) merged as Summit Bank, profiled in the Businesses section, and the Anthony Wayne Bank followed into Summit on 1 May 1987. Indiana's Banking Structure Reform Act of 1984 had meanwhile rewritten the map — it let a holding company own banks across the state, the change the founders of the STAR bank, in the Businesses section, used to combine their separately chartered banks in 1985. Summit itself merged into NBD Bank of Gary in 1993, and its line runs onward through Bank One to Chase.

Lincoln falls: The Lincoln National Bank and Trust Company — the German-American bank of 1905, in its tower since 1930 — was, in the business record's word, troubled. The Federal Reserve approved Norwest Corporation's acquisition of its holding company, Lincoln Financial Corporation, on 20 November 1992, and Norwest's own securities filing dates the closing 9 February 1993: a $2.0 billion Fort Wayne holding company taken in a pooling of interests, after which Norwest restated its results to add a $60.0 million increase in Lincoln's provision for credit losses and $33.5 million of restructuring provisions and costs. The bank was renamed Norwest Bank Fort Wayne, then Norwest Bank Indiana effective 1 March 1994; Norwest kept offices in the tower until 1995, and when Norwest merged with Wells Fargo in 1998 the Fort Wayne branches took the Wells Fargo name.

Fort Wayne National follows: In January 1998 National City Corporation agreed to acquire the Fort Wayne National Corporation — some $800 million in stock, its bank then holding $3.3 billion in assets — and the business record dates the acquisition's completion to March 1998. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's institution history gives the bank-level fact a different date: the Fort Wayne National Bank was merged into the National City Bank of Indiana at the close of business 20 November 1998. Both dates are printed as they stand in their records. The Indiana bank was itself folded into the National City Bank of Cleveland on 22 July 2006, and PNC's 2008 acquisition of National City put the PNC name on the 1970 tower — where the bank that began as the Bank of the State's branch, and was rechartered in 1933, trades today.

Sources:

1. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, institution histories — First Federal, American Federal and Fort Wayne Federal savings and loans (the 30 November 1983 Standard Federal mergers); Fort Wayne National Bank, certificate 4340 (the 20 November 1998 merger); National City Bank of Indiana (the 22 July 2006 fold-in).
2. Federal Reserve, H.2 releases — approval of Norwest Corporation's acquisition of Lincoln Financial Corporation, 20 November 1992.
3. Norwest Corporation, Form S-4 registration statement (Securities and Exchange Commission, 1997) — the 9 February 1993 Lincoln closing and the restated credit-loss provisions.
4. Nuclear Regulatory Commission trustee filing (ML17325B517) — the Norwest Bank Indiana renaming of 1 March 1994 and the 20 November 1998 Fort Wayne National date.
5. The business record and the Businesses section — the Lincoln, Fort Wayne National, Summit and Anthony Wayne profiles.