Hours before Wachovia announced Wednesday that Treasury Undersecretary Robert Steel would be its new president and chief executive, reports surfaced saying that Steel and former Bank of America chief financial officer Al de Molina were finalists for the job.
That has to be a joke as far as the latter candidate is concerned.
The competitiveness between Wachovia and Bank of America is legendary in their hometown of Charlotte, N.C. As one story goes, Wachovia built its headquarters building in downtown Charlotte just a few stories higher than its banking competitor there.
And similar to the eastside-westside competition in Wichita, you’re either a Wachovia or a Bank of America person in Charlotte, I’ve been told.
So when the Wachovia CEO short-list stories surfaced, it was pretty obvious who Wachovia’s guy would be. It wasn’t the BofA guy, now was it?