Today's News

CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: FIRST CHICAGO, which plans to hire more than 400 employees this year, is bucking the downsizing trend among credit card issuers. Scott Marks, chairman of the card unit, has said it will likely open another processing and customer service facility. Page 14 WASHINGTON: SWEEPING LANGUAGE that could roll back national bank insurance powers has been added to the House's regulatory relief bill. The House Banking Committee will take up the bill Tuesday. Page 2 AN IRATE Senate Banking Committee chairman and several of his colleagues accused banking agency officials last week of abusing a legal doctrine that lets them void failed banks' oral contracts. Page 3 SMALL BUSINESS: TO IMPROVE efficiency and consistency, the Small Business Administration will use Fair, Isaac & Co.'s small-business credit scoring system nationwide to process low-documentation loan applications. Page 5 COMMUNITY BANKING: CONCERN ABOUT a plan to make banks help shore up the Savings Association Insurance Fund has led the Maryland Bankers Association to derail temporarily a merger with the state's major thrift trade group. Page 6 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: BANKAMERICA Corp. has decided to drop a Standard & Poor's rating on a controversial money market fund after months of effort to regain the credit agency's approval. Page 9 MORTGAGES: CALIFORNIA REALTORS and lenders have been traumatized as soft home sales persisted through the first five months of 1995 in the nation's largest housing market. Page 10 CITICORP MORTGAGE, once a giant in the residential mortgage industry, is closing its Connecticut processing operation, eliminating 100 jobs. Page 10 LENDERS that have many upper-level minority employees are likely to have higher approval rates for minority home loan applicants, according to a study by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Page 11 TECHNOLOGY: THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS are increasingly operating home banking platforms that can work with multiple devices - touch-tone and screen phones or personal computers. Page 16 UNRAVELING the knotty problems facing prospective cyberbankers in the electronic marketplace is the aim of a new study that examines doing business on the Internet. Page 17 FINANCE: SENTIMENT continues to grow that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting rates this summer. That and the blockbuster deal by First Union for New Jersey's First Fidelity Bancorp. were powerful stimulants for bank stocks. Back page BANCO SANTANDER of Spain played a significant role in encouraging the acquisition of First Fidelity, of which it is the largest shareholder, by First Union Corp., according to Wall Street sources. Back page

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER