Wachovia
Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total assets. Wachovia provided a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services. At its height, it was one of the largest providers of financial services in the United States, operating financial centers in 21 states and Washington, D.C., with locations from Connecticut to Florida and west to California. Wachovia provided global services through more than 40 offices around the world.
First Union
On September 4, 2001, First Union and Wachovia formally merged to form the new Wachovia Corporation. In order to prevent a repeat of the CoreStates problems, the new Wachovia phased the conversion of Wachovia computer systems into the First Union systems. The company first began converting systems in the southeast United States, where both banks had branches, before moving to the Northeast, where First Union branches only had to change their signs to reflect the new company name and logo. This process ended on August 18, 2003, almost two years after the merger took place.