Its options range from the pragmatic-simply scaling back the three-tower project-to organizing pressure and protest against Citibank, which appeared to have agreed to invest in part to burnish its image as it sought to expand its branch operations in Bombay.
Sovereign, in turn, plans to buy a community bank in New York to expand its branch network.
Profit was helped by growth in deposits as the bank expanded its branch network in the Southeast by buying 141 outlets in Florida from Huntington Bancshares in February.
Deutsche Bank's acquisition of Postbank would vastly expand its branch network and more than double the number of retail customers to 24 million.
In a news release late Thursday, it noted that "the question of whether A.I.G. would be allowed to continue to expand its branch operations on a wholly owned basis in China was never an issue in the negotiations until the European Union attempted, in its negotiations with China, to limit such expansion".
By missing out on Wachovia, Citigroup lost its chance to gain one of the last remaining large regional banking franchises, which would have brought in tens of billions of dollars in stable deposits and vastly expanded its branch network in the United States.
UBS acquired a number of banks in its first decade as a combined bank and expanded its branch network, establishing representation throughout Switzerland by 1923.
The bank said its operating income in China grew 21 percent last year, to $1 billion, as it benefited from expanding its local branch network sixfold since 2003.
A1 BUSINESS DAY C1-8 Bank of America Expands Bank of America has absorbed more than 500 local Fleet branches in the New York metropolitan area, continuing its strategy of expanding its nationwide branch network.
Merrill Lynch, in reporting the Citicorp Center lease, said it had been expanding its retail branches nationwide.
