The Norwest Corporation said it had received Federal Reserve approval to acquire the First Interstate Corporation of Wisconsin, and it expects to close the deal about May 1.

Ford also acquired the First Nationwide Financial Corporation, which owns savings and loan associations, in 1985 for $493 million.

Last summer, NCNB acquired the First Republicbank Corporation of Dallas.

LEAD: United Jersey Banks of Princeton, N.J., said it would acquire the First Valley Corporation of Bethlehem, Pa., in an exchange of stock.

The bank become one of the nation's largest after acquiring First USA Inc. and the First Chicago NDB Corporation in the last few years.

Meridian Bancorp of Reading, Pa., announced plans yesterday to acquire the First Pennsylvania Corporation of Philadelphia, the oldest bank in the country and one of the largest before it fell on hard times in the late 1970's.

Officials from Wells Fargo & Company, which lost its bid to acquire the First Republicbank Corporation in July, have also examined Mcorp's holdings in recent weeks.

In the other, Wells Fargo & Company of San Francisco acquired the First Interstate Corporation in 1996.

It acquired The First Boston Corporation in 1988 and merged with the Winterthur insurance company in 1997; the latter was sold to AXA in 2006.

The Regions Financial Corporation, an Alabama bank, could announce as early as today that it has agreed to acquire the First Commercial Corporation of Little Rock, Ark.