On September 4, 2001, First Union and Wachovia formally merged to form the new Wachovia Corporation. In order to prevent a repeat of the CoreStates problems, the new Wachovia phased the conversion of Wachovia computer systems into the First Union systems. The company first began converting systems in the southeast United States, where both banks had branches, before moving to the Northeast, where First Union branches only had to change their signs to reflect the new company name and logo. This process ended on August 18, 2003, almost two years after the merger took place.