Silvers and Bob Bernabucci, president and CEO of UPS Capital Corp., the shipper's Atlanta based financial services arm, were holed up for a morning in a hotel meeting room Jan. 16 after the merger agreement was completed, with cell phones at the ready for media interviews.

Starting as a Seattle messenger service in 1907, UPS is now considered the world's largest package delivery company, with 1999 revenue of $27.1 billion. Hartford is one of seven UPS air hubs servicing nearly 1,000 daily U.S. domestic flights.

As a subsidiary of UPS Capital, Bernabucci said, First International will compliment UPS's financial products, which presently include C.O.D. services, global trade financing, equipment leasing services and an insurance agency. The bank, for example, can provide UPS customers with logistics assistance and brokerage services, he said.

Over the past several months, First International also developed a variety of eCommerce relationships to provide online financing with companies in the bulk carbon, textile and apparel industries, alliances that also attracted UPS.

"We were certainly intrigued," Bernabucci said, noting that UPS looks forward to enhancing its own eCommerce efforts with the bank's. Silvers said those relationships will remain in place after the merger.

Also key for UPS was the ability to increase its business with small companies, after years leaning toward working with big companies.

First International deals primarily with small- and medium sized manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers, and has strong program relationships with the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Department of Agriculture and the federal Export-Import Bank.

For four years in a row, First International has been the Ex-Im Bank's top U.S. lender, based on the number of loan transactions, and presently has a loan portfolio worth about $1.2 billion.

The bank will remain in Hartford, Silvers said, and since there are no redundancies in the job or product mix, none of its 200 employees will lose their jobs.

First International has 14 U.S. offices, and 14 international representatives throughout Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

The merger will require certain regulatory approvals, and approval from First International shareholders.

The transaction is expected to be complete by mid-to-late second quarter 2001.

With this merger, First International will no longer be federally insured and becomes the first Connecticut bank to "debank" under legislation passed by the General Assembly in 1999.

That piece of law, recommended by the state Department of Banking, allows uninsured banks to exist. They can no longer accept retail deposits and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. They must be state chartered by the banking department.

Connecticut was the last state in the Northeast to allow uninsured banks, according to the banking department.

Prior to closing on the merger, First International will sell off its $260 million in deposits. The bank will then depend solely on its parent for financing, Silvers said.

"It provides UPS with the opportunity to have a chartered bank to fit the business needs of its clients," said David Tedschi, spokesman for the banking department, which at press time had not received First International's application for the merger.