Sovereign Bank and M&T Bank Corp.--two midsized players in mortgages--have ended their merger talks, according to combined news reports. A report by Dow Jones said the two banks were in advanced merger discussions in recent weeks. The deal would have catapulted Sovereign's owner--Spain's Banco Santander SA--into the upper ranks of U.S. banking along with such other foreign banks as HSBC and ING. Sovereign is also an active player in providing warehouse credit to nonbank mortgage firms. According to figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report, Sovereign ranks 25th nationwide among residential funders, M&T 28th.
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