Mellon Bank Corp. and Bank of New York, if joined in a merger, would be one of the nation's biggest money managers and likely its largest trust/custody bank.
The joint operation would have roughly $245 billion in assets under management, including $136 billion in U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets, based on year-end data. It also would bring together trust/custody operations that had combined assets of $1.6 trillion as of June 30.
Mellon and BONY are, respectively, the second- and third-largest master trust/custody banks. Mellon had nearly $900 billion in trust/custody assets as of June 30; BONY had about $700 billion. The current leader, State Street Bank, had about $1.1 trillion in trust/custody assets as of June 30.
Bank of New York had $22.8 billion in total assets under management at year end. The Mellon subsidiaries that manage institutional assets are Mellon Equity Associates, which ran nearly $17 billion at year end; Mellon Capital, with $64 billion; Mellon Bond Associates, $47.3 billion; and Dreyfus Corp., $93.6 billion.
Bank of New York today offered to buy Mellon Bank for an estimated $26 billion. Mellon is believed to have rejected the bid.