By Jeff McKinney
Enquirer staff writer

Cleveland's National City Corp. will formally close today on its $2.1 billion acquisition of Provident Financial Group Inc., owner of Greater Cincinnati's second-largest banking company.

The transaction comes about a month after National City got approval from the Federal Reserve to complete its buyout of the parent of Provident Bank.

The 500,000 customers of Provident will not see any immediately changes. Provident will continue to retain its name until February, when the National City name and logo will replace Provident.

The merger also is expected to bring some job cuts at Provident operations, but neither National City nor Provident will release how many.

Sources close to the deal have said that between 400 and 800 jobs could be cut.

Michael Price, National City's new chief executive for its Greater Cincinnati unit, said Wednesday the bank would invest more than $1 million to build a new branch at Union Centre Boulevard in West Chester that Provident had had in the works.

But Price said the branch would be the first to carry the National City name in the region. It's expected to open in November. The Provident branches will adopt the National City name three to four months later, said National City spokeswoman Amber Garwood. National City plans to add 15 branches by 2007.

National City's purchase of Provident also will make it Ohio's largest bank and one of the nation's 10 largest, with assets of more than $127 billion and combined deposits of $77 billion, including about $34 billion in Ohio.

National City closed Wednesday at $35.01, up 31 cents. On its last day of trading, Provident's stock closed at $39.46, up 19 cents.

National City Corp. will replace Provident on the Enquirer's list of the top 80 publicly traded companies that do business in the area.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com