Today's News

FINANCE: ANDREW WIEDERHORN, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Oregon's Wilshire Financial Services Group, has attracted notice with plans to acquire more than $1 billion of thrift and bank assets by 1996. Page 22 UNION PACIFIC dropped its $3.6 billion cash offer for Santa Fe Pacific, ending an intense, drawn-out bidding war with Burlington Northern. Back page WASHINGTON: TO ENTICE more customers to save, bankers recommended some changes to the Individual Retirement Account proposal in the Republican "Contract with America." Page 2 THE INDUSTRY has launched a multistate attack on efforts to limit credit card fees. The latest volley came Monday, when the American Bankers Association filed briefs in two New Jersey Supreme Court cases. Page 4 REGIONAL BANKING: A WAR OF WORDS and budding proxy fight escalated as Compass Bancshares' founder, now a dissident director, was evicted from his company-supplied office. Meanwhile, the Alabama bank's stock price soared as investors placed their bets on a potential takeover. Page 6 CITICORP SAID it obtained a license from the central bank of Bangladesh to open a full-service branch in Dacca, the capital. Page 6 COMMUNITY BANKING: Cleveland's Third Federal Savings went to the Ross Perot School of Marketing for its latest advertising strategy: the infomercial. Page 8 UNUSUALLY STRONG trading in the shares of Bay Ridge Bancorp has befuddled investors and analysts, prompting them to speculate that the Brooklyn thrift is in play. Page 8 MORTGAGES: DESPITE climbing interest rates, first-time homebuyers were in the majority in the housing market last year. Page 10 CHASE MANHATTAN, seeking to add to its growing mortgage empire, is negotiating to purchase the assets of a mortgage servicing business controlled by Goldman, Sachs & Co., according to sources familiar with the deal. Page 10 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: THE ARCHITECT of Premier Bancorp's aggressive mutual fund drive has jumped ship to help a small Chicago banking company build its own investment program. Page 13 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: THE CREDIT CARD program launched late last year by the township of South Orange, N.J., has generated a lot of interest from other cash-starved municipalities - including nearby New York City. Page 14 MASTERCARD International claims to have won the bidding to develop and run the first of six projects in China aimed at improving credit card and debit card transaction processing. Page 14 TECHNOLOGY: SPURRED BY rising overhead costs and increased competition for top executives, many of the top 50 banks have begun to allow select employees to split their work time between home and the office. Page 16 EXPERIENCING a sea change in their core check-printing businesses, Deluxe Corp. and John H. Harland Co. last week reported that earnings were flat in 1994. Page 17

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