BANK ONE CLEVELAND NA was created when the Columbus-based Banc One Corp. took over the former Euclid Natl. Bank (ENB). Euclid Natl. began in 1953 as the Euclid Savings Assn. with $45 million in assets and was converted to a national bank in 1966, changing its name to Euclid Natl. Bank. In 1975 ENB became a subsidiary of the Winters Natl. Corp., a Dayton-based holding company, and expanded its operation when it absorbed the 10 greater Cleveland offices of the Continental Bank in 1976. Continental, founded as the Continental Industrial Bank by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in 1926, had specialized in loans to small businessmen. This merger gave ENB $232 million in assets and 17 offices, and by 1983 it was the 5th largest bank in the city, with headquarters at 1255 Euclid Ave. in downtown Cleveland.
As ENB was growing within the county, Banc One Corp. was established as a holding company for its principal affiliate, Bank One of Columbus, in order to establish a state-wide network of satellite banks. After acquiring banks in Chardon, Painesville, and Ashtabula, in the early 1980s Banc One Corp. secured control of ENB by merging with its owner, the Winters Natl. Corp. of Dayton, making it the largest holding company in Ohio. Bank One of Cleveland, which included previous acquisitions in Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula counties, was created in Jan. 1984, with 53 offices in 4 counties. When Karen N. Horn was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of Bank One Cleveland in April 1987, it had about 1400 employees, 47 branches in Northeast Ohio, and $1.4 billion in assets, as compared to $17 billion of the parent company in Columbus. In 1991 Bank One Cleveland acquired Central Trust Co. of Northern Ohio, which increased the number of its northeast Ohio offices to 68 and its deposits to $285 million. In November of that year, its headquarters moved from 1255 Euclid Ave. to the new 28-story Bank One Center at E. 6th and Superior. At the end of 1991 its parent company, Banc One Corp., was the largest bank in Ohio, with $46.3 billion in assets and revenues of over $4.1 million.
In 1997, Banc One bought First Chicago NBD, moved its corporate headquarters to Chicago, and changed its name to Bank One. The merger, however, proved difficult as executives tried to reconcile Banc One's retail banking and credit card emphasis with First Chicago's strengths in commercial lending. By 2000, leaders of Bank One Cleveland were attempting to reposition their place in Cleveland's commercial lending market in relation to NATIONAL CITY BANK and KeyBank.
Note: Variations in spelling of Bank One as Banc One are not typographical errors. The holding company that owned the local bank is Banc One while the Cleveland bank is Bank One.