Wachovia and Citigroup have begun preliminary merger talks, The New York Times reports. The pub stated that talks are still early and may not result in a deal. After the failure of Washington Mutual on Thursday, Wachovia saw its shares plummet 27 percent as investors lost confidence in the firm's ability to stay afloat.

Later, citing anonymous sources, the pub named Banco Santander and Wells Fargo as participating in talks, too.

Wachovia owns Evergreen Investments, a fund shop with $245 billion in AUM as of June 30. Citi swapped its money management business for Legg Mason's brokerage arm in 2005. 

Edited by: Erin Kello


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