Wachovia Update

Citigroup is near a deal for Wachovia, a move that would concentrate power within the nation’s banking industry in the hands of a few giant lenders, The New York Times’s Eric Dash and Andrew Ross Sorkin reported Monday morning.

Citigroup executives are meeting to complete the deal Monday morning, these people said, cautioning that the talks could unravel. Wells Fargo, which had also been in talks with Wachovia, could also revive its bid.

Although the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department were pushing for a sale, the government was resisting pressure to provide financial guarantees to the buyer, which both Citigroup and Wells Fargo had sought.

A sale to Citigroup would further concentrate Americans’ bank deposits in the hands of just three banks: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup would control more than 30 percent of the industry’s deposits.

— NYTimes Story