MERCANTILE TO CLOSE SOME FACILITIES IN THREE CITIES

Mercantile Bank will close 34 branches as a result of the purchase of Roosevelt Bank.

The St. Louis-based bank announced Friday that it would close about 25 banks in the St. Louis area along with nine others in Kansas City and Springfield, Mo.

Dennis O. Battles, Mercantile's executive vice president responsible for mergers, said Mercantile will still have about 80 branches in St. Louis.

Six branches will be closed in the Kansas City area, leaving it with 82 locations, and three will be closed in Springfield, leaving it with 10, Battles said.

Bank officials could not be reached Saturday to comment on plans for the Roosevelt Bank at 211 S. Silver Springs Rd. in Cape Girardeau.

Mercantile will wind up with 500 locations in a five-state area: Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Arkansas and Iowa.

The bank said that its customers may continue banking as they have been until Nov. 17, when all of the Roosevelt branches will officially come under Mercantile's umbrella. Effective immediately, however, customers may use either Mercantile's or Roosevelt's Automated Teller Machines throughout the region at no charge.

Mercantile is not guaranteeing a job for the employees at the affected branches, but Battles said there would be opportunities. He wouldn't say how many people work at the branches that are to be closed.

Mercantile Bancorporation Inc. and Roosevelt Financial Group Inc. announced on Dec. 24 that the organizations had signed a definitive merger agreement creating the largest locally managed and independently-owned financial services organization headquartered in the lower Midwest.