Lawsuit aims to stop Utah bank merger
Deseret News 23Sep99 B4
By Gregory P. Kratz: Deseret News associate business editor

A lawsuit was to be filed yesterday by six individuals and businesses in Utah to stop the proposed merger between First Security Corp. and Zions Bancorp, Utah's two largest bank holding companies, both of which have strong Mormon roots. Zions Bancorp is the successor to an LDS Church owned bank established by Brigham Young in the 1800s and First Security was founded by LDS Church member David Eccles in the later 1800s.

The individuals filing suit say that when large bank mergers occur, the customers never get any benefit, "We have no one-to-one contact with our banks any more, and actually it's given the people less return on savings and everything else every time there's one of these big mergers. And besides that, monopolies are not good for any place or any people." says Charles "Chick" Noyes, 73, the lead plaintiff in the suit. Joining Noyes in the lawsuit are Connie Brown of Ticaboo, Garfield County; David R. Jorgensen of Provo Diesel Service in Provo; Kniper Corp. of Utah County; Irontown Housing Co. Inc., a manufactured housing business in Provo; and Valgardson Transport Co., a house moving and construction support services company in Utah County.

Representing the plaintiffs is Provo attorney George M. Allen. "The combined banking institution will constitute a financial Fortress Utah, with Utah market share over 70 percent in the state as a whole and with market share approaching 100 percent in remote parts of southern and eastern Utah," he writes in the suit.

First Security spokesman Adrian Gostick would not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but said that the merger represents a golden opportunity, "The merger represents the best opportunity to build a large banking organization with an excellent long-term future, with a financial institution headquartered right here in Utah."

Scott Anderson, Zions' president and CEO said early Thursday that he hadn't seen the suit but that he thinks that the merger will benefit Utah. "You go out and look at cities that have lost a financial institution's headquarters, and they have been the worse for it."