“The level of shareholder antagonism here is way out of kilter with the importance of Sovereign Bancshares,” a fund manager told me last week. “This has come to stand as a symbol for something much bigger.”

The “this” he is referring to is the continuing fight that activist shareholders in Sovereign Bancshares have been waging with the management of the Pennsylvania bank holding company. Led by Relational Investors, a Newport Beach-based investment company, they have been fighting to change what they see as Sovereign management’s less than shareholder- friendly behaviour. In their view, that includes the sale of a 20 per cent block of stock (with options for more) to Santander, the Spanish bank, and the takeover of Brooklyn-based Independence Community Bank, without shareholder approval. There are other issues, including the reasonableness of directors’ compensation and the accuracy of the management’s past statements but everything turns on the shareholders’ say over the deals.