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With bank mergers in Ohio at their highest level in years, some lenders are stepping up efforts to recruit customers frustrated or confused by the changes.
Roughly 17 mergers involving banks operating in Ohio have occurred in 2004, including.
* New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $58 billion acquisition of Bank One Corp.
* Cleveland-based National City Corp.'s $2.1 billion purchase of Cincinnati's Provident Financial Group Inc.
* Columbus-based Huntington Bancshares Inc.'s pending $588 million acquisition of Unizan Financial Corp. of Canton.
Those banks' competitors, such as Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bancorp, are looking at the consolidation as a chance to get customers to switch banks.
"In six Fifth Third markets there's a lot of merger activity going on with other banks," said Debbie Beyer, a spokeswoman for Fifth Third in Columbus. "And we really look at this as an opportunity to invite people who are going through that change to change to...