ANNOUNCEMENTS.

Banks

Wendy S. Bolas has been appointed senior vice president and retail sales manager for FirstMerit Bank, Akron, Ohio. Bolas joined the bank in 1985 and has served in retail banking, training and sales development.

Coastal Banc of Houston has made several appointments in its marketing and product strategies divisions. Vice President Joni Mitchell was promoted to manager of marketing and product strategies. Jennifer Drake was promoted to community marketing coordinator. Melinda Combs transferred from the training department to the position of product manager. Denita Holmes was hired as advertising project manager, and Kimberly Daniel was hired as research analyst.

Michael D. Linck has been named banking officer, in charge of advertising and market research, at North Dallas Bank & Trust Co.

Labe Bank of Chicago has appointed Pernilla Jonsson as marketing coordinator, responsible for advertising graphic design and administrative support to the marketing department.

Alisha Rindal Johnson has been named senior vice president and director of marketing at Highland Bank in St. Paul, Minn. Previously she had been vice president and director of marketing for Signal Financial Corp.

Del D. Karfonta, senior vice president for retail banking at The Columbia Bank, Howard County, Md., has been promoted to executive vice president. He will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the bank's network of branch offices. He will also manage and supervise retail marketing and promotional activities.

Interchange Bank of Saddle Brook, N.J., has promoted long-time employee Annette Smith to assistant sales manager. Previously she has been merchant accounts manager, retail sales assistant and corporate services administration. She received the Board of Regents award for achieving the highest academic average while completing her professional banking studies with the American Institute of Banking.

George Cohan, regional sales manager in Colonial Bank's southwest Florida region, has been given increased responsibilities as lead trainer and sales motivator in nine additional regions. His new responsibilities include training senior-level associates, designing workshops to address specific training needs and coordinating sales efforts to stimulate growth.

Financial Services

Robert H. Griffith has been promoted to president and chief executive officer of Irwin Financial Corp.'s mortgage subsidiary, Irwin Mortgage Corp. Previously, Griffith was executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Service Providers

Dale R. Walker, president and chief operating officer of Digital Insight Corp., has been elected to the company's board of directors replacing Brady 1. "Tripp" Rackley III. Rackley voluntarily stepped down to make room for Walker on the board. Before joining Digital Insight, Walker had been president of personal financial services at Ford Motor Credit.

Robin A. Clow has been appointed vice president and director of client services at NewGround Resources Inc., a marketing and training firm for the financial services industry. Clow will be based at the firm's Portsmouth, N.H. offices.

Willey Brothers Inc., a retail design and positioning firm based in Rochester, N.H., has appointed Kevin Kelly president. Kelly joined the firm in 1986.

Nancy Campbell was named chief executive officer of Silicon Valley-based IBT Financial Inc. which provides electronic training programs for the financial services industry. Previously, she was president of Training a la carte, a technology-based training firm based in Phoenix.

Alliances

John H. Harland Co. has entered into partnership with Maxxar Corp. to use Maxxar's computer telephony products and Harland's Financial Solutions ChannelExpert system. The affiance will permit financial institutions to improve their cross-selling capability. ChannelExpert is expected to be available soon.

FISI Madison Financial, a Nashville-based subsidiary of Cendant Corp., bought the packaging business of Atlanta-based MarketTrust Inc., which designs and implements value-added checking, insurance and e-commerce services for financial institutions.

BISYS has agreed to buy Boston Institutional Group for approximately $35 million. Boston Institutional Group provides outsourcing services for mutual fund complexes. The transaction will add about 30 major mutual fund complexes to the BISYS client list.

Fair, Isaac and Co. Inc. and Baker Hill Corp. plan to integrate their Web-based systems to offer faster and more cost-effective methods for increasing credit approval rates for small businesses. Fair, Isaac will provide the analytics and decision technology, and Baker Hill's end-to-end processing technology, which, the companies say, will eliminate the need for small firms to invest in in-house technology.

Open Solutions Inc., a provider of integrated enterprise, Internet banking and e-commerce solutions for community banks, has expanded its strategic alliance with Universal Pensions Inc., a retirement services firm. The enhanced relationship gives OSI customers easier access to a comprehensive suite of IRA plan documents.

Citigroup has announced two new alliances for its c2it person-to-person payments system. One alliance is with Microsoft's MSN network, which has agreed to offer c2it to network members and the other, Auction Watch, has agreed to embed c2it in its e-commerce software.

Mergers

Fifth Third Bancorp has completed its acquisition of Cleveland-based Maxus Investment Group. Fifth Third says it also plans to purchase Old Kent, a $23 billion financial services company located in Grand Rapids, Mich. The Old Kent acquisition, expected to be completed in the second quarter will give Fifth Third's investment advisers division more than $190 billion in assets under care, of which more than $36 billion will be managed by the company.

MB Financial Inc. and MidCity Financial Corp. have agreed to merge their organizations to create the third largest banking organization headquartered in Chicago.

Regions Financial Corp., a $43.6 billion bank holding company with offices in nine southern states, plans to acquire Morgan Keegan Inc. of Memphis, Tenn. Morgan Keegan will retain its name and operate as the Regions brokerage and capital markets service.