REGIONAL:
SEE NATIONSBANK/BANK SOUTH ARTICLE 9/6/95
Graphic 3x10 mac, p. 6
WASHINGTON
A Benefits Transfer Victory for Banks
A federal judge rejected a challenge to the banking industry's monopoly on electronic benefits transfer. He ruled against a nonbank that had sued to overturn Treasury Department rules for bidding on electronic delivery of welfare and food stamp benefits.
September 8
19742
The government will refund to banks $1.5 billion overcharged for deposit insurance since June 1. Refunds will be made Friday by electronic credits to each bank through the automated clearing house network.
September 6
19676
House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach announced plans to infuse money into the undercapitalized thrift insurance fund, but dashed bank industry hopes for new powers. The Iowa Republican outlined a proposal that in effect calls for absorbing the nation's thrifts into the banking system.
September 7
19714
For lawmakers back from their month's hiatus, and the big banking issues will be bailing out the undercapitalized thrift fund, repealing Glass- Steagall, and easing the regulatory burden.
September 5
19607
California's Supreme Court gave out-of-state credit card banks a major victory, ruling that they can ignore the state's restrictions on fee and service charges. The ruling could help the credit card industry in similar cases pending before four other high courts.
September 6
19674
Real estate market conditions improved this summer for the first time in a year, according to a survey released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Graphic: 1x3 mac, p. 2, REALTY COMEBACK
September 7
19712
REGIONAL BANKING
NationsBank Paying Big For Bank South Corp.
NationsBank has moved to ensure its dominance in the Atlanta market by agreeing to acquire Bank South. It will pay a high price - 2.4 times book value - but cost-cutting plans seem impressive even by the standards of past in-market mergers.
September 6
19679
BankAmerica reached definitive agreements to sell 20 branches in rural Texas to nine community banks.
September 5
19603
Suntrust's Trust Company of Georgia is reportedly considering putting branches in supermarkets of the 492-store Publix chain.
September 7
19684
In the wake of NationsBank's agreement to buy Bank South, analysts are again scouring the Southeast for any remaining takeover targets. Leading prospects: Amsouth, Hibernia, Whitney, Central Fidelity, Riggs National.
September 8
19719
Wachovia has cautiously returned to international banking through strategic alliances with foreign banks - London-based HSBC Holdings and the Netherlands' Bank Mendes Gans and ABN-Amro. Executive vice president Donald P. Carson says it's pushing "plain-vanilla products to areas the big players don't cover."
September 8
19717
COMMUNITY BANKING
A Ky. Bank Sets Up Training Subsidiary
Reengineering-minded Trans Financial Inc. of Kentucky has formed an employee training subsidiary and hired an experienced bank educator to run it.
September 7
19680
The East Coast was flooded by a wave of new bank charters in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but most are now just limping along - and a number are still losing money.
September 8
19729
Amid reports it is negotiating a sale to Bank of Boston, Boston Bancorp is trying to answer regulatory criticism that led to the resignation of two top executives.
September 7
19681
Cecil Adams says Oakland, Calif. - notable for crime, poverty, and tough neighborhoods - may be ready for a change, and his community development bank will help. Community Bank of the Bay is expected to open early next year.
September 6
19641
Financing farm machinery purchases is big business for John Deere Credit, and its success has broad implications for agricultural lending. Most manufacturers have their own financing units.
September 5
19618
SMALL BUSINESS
Glenfed Tackles Giants In New Ad Campaign
Glendale Federal Bank, the California thrift that has made a name for itself by taunting the state's biggest banks in its ads, is now trying to grab small-business market share from them.
September 5
19601
COMPLIANCE
Branch Grows in Harlem - With No Tellers
Chase Manhattan's Mark Willis says its new Harlem branch - with an ATM, a phone banking link, and a loan officer, but no tellers - could be the prototype for inner-city branches in New York and elsewhere. "We think this may be the right mix," he says.
September 7
19697
When banks get bigger through mergers, their compliance efforts should improve, industry experts say.
September 7
19701
Bank of Boston says it expects to save 40% on storage and retrieval costs under a five-year, $5 million contract with a document management firm. Boston-based Iron Mountain will house the bank's 200,000 boxes of paper records in a Massachusetts storage facility.
September 7
19700
CREDIT UNIONS
Space Coast Takes Off For Brave New World
Gregory A. Thomas, chief executive of Space Coast Credit Union, is using high-tech delivery systems to position his credit union for the future. "We're going to wake up one day and the whole world is going to be different," he says.
September 5
19613
Credit unions that serve overseas military bases are bracing for a battle with NationsBank. Under a new five-year contract, the Department of Defense will pay the bank $502 million to set up shop on installations in Europe, the Pacific, and Panama in October.
September 5
19612
The National Association of Federal Credit Unions is worried about the federal debt ceiling. If it isn't raised by Oct. 15 and the government shuts down, federal workers could stage a run on their credit unions, and those who repay loans through payroll deduction could accidentally default.
September 5
19611
The industry's most infamous fugitive surrendered to federal agents at a church in Kentucky. Richard Mangone, whose fraud scheme brought down one credit union and hobbled another, vanished five days before his sentencing in February 1994.
September 5
19610
CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs
A Big Visa Campaign Not for Credit Cards
Visa is launching an $8 million, month-long radio and television campaign for Visa check cards. It's the first major mass-market advertising in Visa's history devoted to a product other than credit cards.
September 6
19658
Dean Witter Discover has put another card under its Novus brand name. The new Bravo card is aimed at consumers who don't pay off their balances monthly.
September 8
19723
At a Hall of Fame-style ceremony, the American Bankers Association honored D. Dale Browning, the late Karl H. Hinke, and Kenneth V. Larkin, visionaries of the credit card industry
September 8
19722
Egghead Inc., the software retailer, has come out with a cobranded Visa credit card issued by First USA Bank.
September 7
19703
NationsBank said it has won one of the largest installation contracts ever for automated teller machines - a 661-machine network for Stop-N-Go convenience stores in Texas.
September 5
19631
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
Bank of N.Y. Making A Connecticut Debut
Bank of New York is making a classy entrance into Connecticut's lucrative private banking market with the purchase of Putnam Trust.
September 7
19696
"If you build it, they will come" seems to be working for Leslie E. Bains, hired by Republic National Bank of New York two years ago to build a private banking business practically from scratch.
September 6
19645
The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered the state's Department of Insurance to rule on a Huntington Bancshares unit's application for a property insurance license.
September 5
19624
The National Association of Securities Dealers is softening proposed bank brokerage rules that made bankers see red.
September 6
19670
MORTGAGES
Loan Delinquencies Take a Sharp Rise
Delinquency rates rose sharply in the second quarter, in what might be the start of a long-term climb.
September 6
19677
The government has launched a campaign to make banks as sensitive to racial bias in credit card and auto lending as it believes they have become in mortgages.
September 7
19707
First Interstate is forming a joint venture with PHH Corp. to market home loans by telephone. About 450 of the bank's employees will be displaced.
September 5
19627
Once-mighty Lomas is selling its loan production business and about a third of its portfolio of servicing rights to First Nationwide Bank. A deal had been expected, but not one including the origination business.
September 8
19727
TECHNOLOGY
Upgrade at Big Board Preserves Tradition
In upgrading its trading operations with a client/server system, the New York Stock Exchange took care to preserve the two-centuries-old tradition of face-to-face interaction between buyers and sellers.
September 8
19718
The Windows 95 decision should be easy for bankers - skip it - writes Jerry Weiner of Interactive Planning Systems, which sells microcomputer- based bank software. His general advice is to upgrade to Windows NT.
September 6
19654
The new Chase would have to choose between Chemical's retail processing software, developed by Alltel, and the Chase's current system, largely from Hogan. Experts are split on which way the decision would go.
September 7
19689
A marketing and technical alliance between fund giant Fidelity Investments and Broadway & Seymour, a leading provider of trust accounting software, aims to improve the efficiency of banks' trust and brokerage operations.
September 5
19630
PC-based banking will keep proliferating, says a soon-to-be-released study, and touch-tone services will be ubiquitous in five years. But banks hold the upper hand in the battle to be the primary providers of remote financial services, say many experts quoted.
September 6
19652
FINANCE
Mixed Signals On the Economy
After what seems to have been a soft landing this summer, the U.S. economy appears balanced precariously between fresh growth and the prospect of stagnation or even recession. Nonfarm payrolls rose more than expected last month, but reports from purchasing managers predict a decline in manufacturing.
September 5
19632
NationsBank treasurer John Mack says bringing debt to market is like a chess match - you have to think several moves ahead. He apparently made all the right moves on a recent issue of 20-year debt.
September 5
19631
Regulators have formally adopted rules that will reduce the amount of capital banks must hold against some derivatives positions.
September 6
19679
PNC stockholders might block the acquisition of Midlantic, Lehman Brothers said.
September 7
19710
