If all goes as planned, no merger announced after June 30 will be able to use pooling of interests accounting.

In the first five months of this year, 2,056 mergers totaling $106.3 billion were announced, a 14.2 percent increase from the comparable period of 1986.

With the merger announced today, "I should think the same thing would happen."

The merger announced today was seen as preparation for the new era by two of the leading Japanese banks.

The merger announced last week between the auto workers, steel workers and machinists unions reflects weakness, rather than revival, of organized labor.

Even several merger and acquisition moves announced yesterday did not add much support.

The accounting board said it expected the new rules to be effective for mergers or acquisitions announced after Jan. 1, 2001.

The merger announced today will take five years to complete, the unions' leaders said, but the result will be a two-million-member behemoth.

The merger announced today seems part of a trend.

The merger announced yesterday would combine two starkly different institutions.