Terrence Murray, president, chairman, and chief executive officer of Fleet Financial Group, was selected as this year's top banker in the Northeast.
Mr. Murray has won high marks from Wall Street for launching an ambitious cost cutting plan at the $48 billion-asset bank.
"Fleet Focus '94" began in March. The goal is to save $500 million at the Providence-based company by the end of the first quarter of 1995. The plan includes chopping $350 million in expenses while increasing revenues by $50 million.
Much of the savings will come from eliminating 5,500 positions, including 3,000 layoffs.
So far, Fleet has exceeded the earnings and cost cutting expectations of analysts. In this year's third quarter the bank posted $164 million in net income, the highest in its history.
The bank has also lopped off $210 million in overhead, 60% of its stated goal. The bank made 40% of the cuts in the second quarter alone.
Revenues remain flat, but Mr. Murray is so confident about the bank's robust prospects he told analysts in September that Fleet will report earnings for individual lines of business at yearend.
