Bye-bye, big bank

SAN FRANCISCO -- The tony corporate boardroom that once hosted some of California's most powerful executives is now up for rent.

The 51st-floor power suite of the Bank of America building, an anchor of San Francisco's skyline, stands largely empty, except for the ghosts of the bank's former chief executives, whose portraits grace its walls.

It was just five years ago that San Francisco lost its largest bank -- and a key piece of the city's pride -- when NationsBank of Charlotte, N.C., gobbled up BankAmerica Corp. in what was then billed as a "merger of equals." The bank's corporate headquarters headed off to Charlotte, and San Francisco was left with a landmark maroon building that bears Bank of America's name but far fewer of its power brokers.

In three months, when the same Bank of America is scheduled to swallow FleetBoston Financial Corp., Boston's largest hometown bank will be gone. But if San Francisco's experience is any indication, the future of Boston's merger may be more complicated than its supporters, or its critics, will admit.

A month after the merger closed, San Francisco's old chief executive was gone. The "merger of equals" dissolved into an acquisition. Though the new bank actually gives more in dollars and cents to the city, it has failed to win over a vocal corps of community groups, which remain convinced that the new bank is distant and unfeeling.

"The transfer of power clearly went from San Francisco to North Carolina," said Richard Puntillo, a finance professor at the University of San Francisco. "There was a kind of coming down for us. We lost something, even though the vast majority of customers wouldn't notice any difference."

But that "lost something" remains hard to define. To some, it's about not being able to pick up the phone and call a bank representative in their city. To others, it's more about the indignity that many California community leaders have never talked things out with the company's chief executive.

"We've lost that communication link," said Mel Washington, president of the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce. The group used to get about $50,000 to organize workshops on access to capital and credit repair. Since the merger, however, he said the bank has been "disinterested" and has not supported the organization.

Five years after the San Francisco deal, activists across California are still furious at the bank for what they view as a string of broken promises. They decorated the walls at a recent Federal Reserve Bank meeting with posters proclaiming "We're not a colony," sang a Mexican protest song, and passed out fortune cookies with the message, "Beware of banks that speak loudly and say little."

But though anxiety levels are running high, a Globe review of Bank of America's efforts in California before and after the merger shows that, by several key indicators, the bank has actually improved its performance.

The bank's charitable giving in the state increased after the merger, while its refinancing loans to blacks and Latinos went up as well. Arts groups such as the San Francisco Ballet and the Opera saw their funding from Bank of America remain relatively constant or increase. The bank shut some branches, but it has since opened many new ones.

Even for Bank of America's loyal California customers, the San Francisco merger had some unsteady moments. When applying to refinance his Oakland home a few years ago, Darien Belanger decided to add his domestic partner to the deed.

But the newly minted banking giant processed his application in Texas and, on the 59th day of the 60-day window to close the deal, Bank of America called with some bad news: If Belanger wanted the loan, the bank said, he would have to bring an extra $1,800 to the closing the next day to cover additional property tax liabilities the bank had overlooked.

"They just weren't familiar with the California market," he said. "I was paying them to help me. It's their business to know about this stuff."

Like Boston, San Francisco has always regarded itself as a financial hub. When a North Carolina titan one-upped its local bank, the city sought assurances that Bank of America would remain committed to the community -- just as Boston did during the Fleet merger.

Across the country, cities such as Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Phoenix all lost banks during the wave of mergers that engulfed the industry in the 1980s and '90s. The trend has continued more recently, as Chicago is scheduled to lose Bank One Corp., its last major bank, when it merges with J.P. Morgan Chase.

But in San Francisco, things went particularly bad. Soon after the merger, BankAmerica's former chief executive -- the most powerful advocate for California in the newly combined bank -- abruptly resigned, and other senior California executives followed.

That legacy has Californians feeling shortchanged, regardless of what the bank does now.

"At the beginning, it was like dating," said Darlene Mar, a member of the steering committee for the Council of Asian American Business Associations. "They sent Hugh McColl" -- the combined bank's then-chief executive -- "to San Francisco, and he reaffirmed his commitments. But then things started to taper off."

Before the deal had closed, she tore up her Bank of America credit card and shut down her bank account. Instead, she moved her money over to Wells Fargo & Co., which still has its headquarters in San Francisco.

Though much of the hard data favor the bank, naysayers have it right on one important count: small business loans under $100,000. After Charlotte became the new headquarters, the bank made far fewer of these loans in San Francisco County, according to information from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

But Bank of America officials dispute the notion that small business lending across the state has undergone any decline. Though the bank did very little small business lending five year ago, Bank of America has now become the number one small business lender in California, said Liam McGee, Bank of America's president of consumer banking.

"We have dramatically deepened our involvement in matters crucial to the quality of life in California in the five years since the NationsBank merger," he said. "I'm talking particularly about housing, small business development, education, and financial literacy."

After the merger, Bank of America's funding choices also attracted a mix of praise and criticism. One group, the Southeast Asian Community Center, has received more than $300,000 from Bank of America over the last five years -- with the bulk of that money coming after the merger.

Without that money, the borrowers could never have started small businesses ranging from a metal fabricator to a janitorial service, said Victor Hsi, the center's business director.

"This is critical," he said. "These people generally don't qualify for loans. This lets them start their own business."

But for every Southeast Asian Community Center, activists say, there is another San Francisco group that cannot get Bank of America's attention. The Mission Language and Vocational School, which teaches job skills to Latino immigrants across the region, said Bank of America has turned down an application to fund its job-training program for Latinos, saying it is "not a funding priority."

"We just feel like they've drawn back," said Alan Fisher, executive director of the California Reinvestment Committee, a group that monitors banks' commitment to the community. "It's kind of scary for us. This was our big homegrown bank, and no one thought it was going to be anything else."

But there are several reasons to believe that Boston's experience in a merger with Bank of America will not parallel that of its West Coast counterpart. In a signal of its commitment to New England, Bank of America has appointed several top Fleet executives to the newly combined company, and Fleet's chief executive, Chad Gifford, will become chairman of the combined company after the deal.

Bank of America has promised to maintain employment levels in New England, which it plans to accomplish by relocating several key divisions to Boston. The bank recently appointed Anne Finucane of Fleet to oversee strategic planning in the merger, another sign of Fleet's power in the combined bank.

Even so, many Californians urge customers in New England to remain skeptical.

"For Boston down the road, once you become a national bank, it'll be like, `Boston? Boston who?' " said Mar of the Council of Asian American Business Associations. "Just like it's now `California? California who?' "

Sasha Talcott can be reached at stalcott@globe.com.