Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse M. D'Amato was hospitalized last week after suffering chest pains for 10 days.
The New York Republican was released last Wednesday after an overnight stay at the Heart Center at St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn, N.Y.
Initial tests indicated Sen. D'Amato was suffering from coronary blockage, but cardiac catheterization Tuesday night indicated a normal heart.
A press release from his office said Sen. D'Amato was "feeling fine" but would take a few days off to rest before returning to the congressional grindstone.
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Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Ricki Helfer is getting some R&R as well.
The self- and staff-described workaholic Ms. Helfer took off Tuesday for a week's vacation in Milan. She is due back Wednesday afternoon, which means she'll miss the Federal Reserve Board's meeting that morning to finalize Community Reinvestment Act reform.
The FDIC is slated to tackle final CRA rules April 24.
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The Bankers Roundtable tapped Thomas G. Labrecque for a one-year term as president. Mr. Labrecque, chairman and chief executive of Chase Manhattan Corp., replaces Robert M. Freeman, chairman and chief executive of Signet Banking Corp.
Roger L. Fitzsimonds, chairman and chief executive of Firstar Corp., is the trade group's new vice president.
Riggs National Corp. president Timothy C. Coughlin was chosen to serve for another year as the Roundtable's treasurer.
The big bank trade group also elected seven new directors.
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The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank has promoted Alicia Williams to vice president in charge of consumer and community affairs. She will oversee the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and other consumer- and community-related rules. The Chicago Fed also appointed James R. Holland as a public affairs officer, and Joseph Green and Cynthia L. Rasche as audit officers.
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Richard S. Carnell, assistant secretary of financial institutions at the Treasury, said that the difference between an administration Glass-Steagall proposal and one forwarded by House Banking Committee Chairman Jim Leach has more to do with lunch meat than anything substantive.
"I would submit that we are not just talking about small differences of degree here - this is the thinnest bologna, this is pastrami, no - this is prosciutto of the mind," Mr. Carnell said at a recent Jerome Levy Economics Institute conference.
The administration's proposal would allow banks to operate securities activities in a bank subsidiary, while the Iowa Republican's measure mandates that these activities take place in a holding company subsidiary.
Rep. Leach has criticized the affiliation structure proposed by the administration as one that does not provide enough insulation for an insured depository in the case of financial problems with a subsidiary.
