David Woschitz is the sort of customer banks dream of. He's the top administrator of the Center for Sight, a 10,000-patient ophthalmology group in Anderson, Ind. His business has a perfect record for paying its debts. But until recently, he had trouble getting any respect amid successive waves of bank consolidation.
Woschitz had dealt with the same bank for years and stuck by it during the turmoil that followed its absorption into a larger institution. But in 1992, his bank was taken over again, this time by National City Corp., based in Cleveland. After that, the dream customer started having bank...