Wells-HSBC Trade Bank Start-Up Gets Fed Nod

WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve Board has given Wells Fargo & Co. and HSBC Holdings permission to establish a bank specializing in international trade finance.

Trade Bank, which will acquire assets from its two parents, will be based in San Francisco and will operate branches in Los Angeles and El Monte, Calif.

The Fed emphatically rejected a Community Reinvestment Act protest filed by the San Francisco Black Chamber of Commerce, saying Wells Fargo has received an "outstanding" rating in its most recent exam.

The Fed said the bank increased the number of black loan recipients sixfold during the past year, to 445, and it provided $710 million for the construction of 212,000 affordable-housing units.

Wells Fargo also made $2.7 billion in small business loans in 1994 and it has committed to making an additional $5 billion in economic development loans, the Fed said.

The black chamber had criticized Wells Fargo's treatment of the African- American community, charging it didn't encourage blacks to apply for home mortgages and saying it closed branches that served minority neighborhoods.

The Fed also took two enforcement actions during the past week. First, it issued a cease-and-desist order against Colin Vickerie, a former officer at Bankers Trust Company of California.

Mr. Vickerie, who consented to the order, agreed to submit reports every 120 days to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York explaining how he is complying with the securities trading policies of his current employer, United States Trust Company of New York. He also agreed to follow all bank policies regarding trading errors that he may have made.

The Fed also ordered Maple Park (Ill.) Bancshares to file a capital restoration plan within 120 days and to withhold all dividend payments until further notice. The holding company also agreed to take "all actions necessary" to ensure that First State Bank of Maple Park complies with the order.

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