EARNINGS expectations for Eagle Finance of Libertyville, Ill., a fast-growing subprime auto lender, have plummeted as a result of a sharp increase in delinquencies. Back page SOME DERIVATIVES professionals are privately cheering reports that Mary Schapiro, the tough chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, may jump to the National Association of Securities Dealers. Back page WASHINGTON: UNDER AN AGREEMENT reached by congressional budget negotiators, thrifts wouldn't have to pay back taxes on bad debt reserves set aside before 1987. Lobbyists expressed relief, though thrifts had hoped to avoid paying any taxes. Page 2 WHEN DONNA FISHER, the ABA's director of tax and accounting, takes her case to Congress and the regulators, she sometimes counts damage control among her proudest achievements. Page 4 REGIONAL BANKING: AMERICAN SAVINGS of Irvine, Calif., has hired a former Citicorp and Crocker National executive to run its retail business. Page 5 NORWEST IS BUYING Victoria Bankshares in Texas for $290 million. The deal is one of the biggest in the Minneapolis bank's campaign to piece together a large Texas branch network outside the major urban markets. Page 5 COMMUNITY BANKING: OLD HABITS DIE HARD at Texas community banks, and memories are long. Despite efforts by big out-of-state regionals to reassert their correspondent banking presence, Texas' 900 community institutions prefer to deal with in-state banks. Page 8 PACIFIC BANK of San Francisco, once considered among the least likely to survive the California recession, has suddenly become a player in the mergers and acquisitions market. Page 8 MORTGAGES: PNC MORTGAGE promoted Saiyid Naqvi to chief executive, citing his technological skills. The company is abandoning the use of outside brokers. Page 10 HUD HAS ISSUED an optimistic report card on President Clinton's program to boost homeownership. Page 10 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: SECURITIES REGULATORS in Luxembourg have given Signature Financial the go-ahead to set up and market mutual funds there under its "hub-and- spoke" structure. That will make it easier for banks to set up mutual funds in Europe that could share costs and investment styles with portfolios managed here. Page 13 TECHNOLOGY: CHASE HAS TESTED and "is looking for ways to use" a service from AT&T and Lotus meant to let banks distribute complex Notes-formatted information over public telephone networks. Page 16 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: GOLD CARDS have become so common that the idea of super-premium cards is again being bandied about. The question, says a Banc One executive, is "what particular benefits will cardholders be willing to pay for?" Page 14 THE FIRST INSTALLMENT of a new quarterly research report confirmed the obvious - that banks are barraging consumers with direct-mail solicitations for cards. Fifty-seven percent of all cardholders were solicited by issuers during the last three months of 1994, Behavioral Analysis Inc. found. Page 15
