Today's News

MORTGAGES: FRANK RAINES, vice chairman of Fannie Mae, which is fighting to reverse a new HUD rule that it fears would excessively tighten regulatory scrutiny over any new activities, says, "This is regulatory habit." Page 8 THE POPULATION of mortgage companies that will be able to report increased earnings under an accounting rule that was on the fast track two years ago and is again near adoption has shrunk sharply and diluted the benefits of the change. Page 9 WASHINGTON: CHASE MANHATTAN Bank got permission to merge its Connecticut and New York operations from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which rebuffed a Bronx-based community group that had raised objections. Page 2 INCREASING the amount of money a bank is free to lend, federal regulators next month will reduce the capital requirement for low-level recourse arrangements. Page 3 REGIONAL BANKING: GREAT WESTERN Bank, the lead subsidiary of Chatsworth, Calif.-based Great Western Financial, said it would eliminate 500 branch jobs in 1995. Page 4 KEY BANK of New York says it has found a way to reduce the outflow of customers that results from branch closings - by holding public meetings at the 12 it is thinking about closing, out of 330 across the Empire State. Page 4 COMMUNITY BANKING: INTERSTATE BRANCHING opponents are building up financial and political capital in support of bills to "opt out" of the federal interstate branching law in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Page 6 NOBODY could have imagined, as recently as 1993, the Independent Bankers Association of America endorsing legislation to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act. But times change. Page 7 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: MASTERCARD, making what it calls its most significant sponsorship commitment, said it has agreed to continue corporate sponsorship of the World Cup soccer tournament. Page 11 TECHNOLOGY: KEYCORP, the nation's 12th-largest banking company, has joined the growing number of institutions using image technology for lockbox applications. It has begun testing Banctec's Image First remittance processing technology. Page 16 THE TAKEOVER of check processor Nationar by the New York State Banking Department revealed several shortcomings in the procedures for seizure, industry officials said. Page 17 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: GEORGE L. STEVENS, department head for consumer investment services at AmSouth's brokerage unit, remembers 1994 as an "intimidating" year to launch a push into the retail investment products market. Page 14 WELLS FARGO, BankAmerica, and Citicorp led the banking industry in sales of annuities during the third quarter of 1994, according to a study by Bank Insurance Market Research Group. Page 15 FINANCE: BANK GROUPS backing Union Pacific, the hostile bidder for Santa Fe Pacific, and Burlington Northern, the eventual winner, helped jack up the price to $3.85 billion, about $1.15 billion more than Burlington's initial offer. Back page