Jan. 31--On Friday, Sovereign Bancorp ended its reign as an independent regional banking powerhouse and became part of one of the largest banks in the world.

Sovereign was homegrown in Berks County, based in Philadelphia and managed out of Boston. It now is offi cially part of the Spanish bank, Banco Santander.

Legal loose ends were tied up Friday.

Gabriel Jaramillo, the new chief executive offi cer of Sovereign Bancorp, spoke to all employees of Sovereign by phone Friday, welcoming them to the company.

Jaramillo will operate Sovereign out of Boston. He replaces Paul A. Perrault, who took the job as chief executive of Sovereign on Jan. 5.

Jaramillo was named to the post Monday at the Santander shareholder meeting in Madrid, Spain. Shareholders approved the deal then.

Sovereign shareholders voted Wednesday to approve the deal.

Shareholders of Sovereign will receive .3206 shares of Santander stock for each share of Sovereign.

Sovereign's ticker symbol, SOV, was removed from the New York Stock Exchange at the close of the stock market day Thursday.

Santander closed at $7.84, up 31 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.

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