Bank mergers, mutual funds mark finance.(Fleet Boston Corp.)(Brief Article)

Fidelity and FleetBoston tower above the rest of the financial services pack

Boston's financial services industry has changed dramatically over the course of the last 20 years. Banks disappeared, insurance companies left the state, venture capital firms raised multibillion-dollar funds. And, two companies--Fidelity Investments and FleetBoston Financial Corp.--towered far above their competitors.

Fidelity, launched in 1946, transformed itself into the country's leading mutual fund company over the past two decades. FleetBoston, meanwhile, rose on the ambition of CEO Terrence Murray and went from obscurity to become the nation's eighth-largest bank.

To Boston Business Journal readers in 1981, either scenario most likely would have seemed improbable, given the economic slump that dragged on in …