Executives Briefing

WASHINGTON D'Amato May Forgo A Rewrite of CRA

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse M. D'Amato said the panel may defer to the Clinton administration and leave the Community Reinvestment Act alone. "I don't want to see a war that would prevent us from enacting all the good that's been done in this (regulatory relief) bill," the New York Republican said.

May 3

19510

With a key vote on Glass-Steagall legislation just around the corner, the House Banking Committee's plans to keep insurance issues out of the bill may be in jeopardy. An aide to the House Commerce Committee chairman told lobbyists that the panel plans hearings in mid-May on legislation that would permit states to limit bank insurance powers.

May 2

19467

Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin conceded that practical politics may stand in the way of the administration's goal of letting banks and insurance companies into each other's businesses. Mr. Rubin said that it may be best to avoid the insurance issue now "for tactical reasons."

May 4

19568

Acorn blasted a legislative effort to exempt banks with satisfactory community reinvestment records from merger protests. It said the bills would shield from public scrutiny too many banks with large rejection-rate disparities between white and minority applicants.

May 4

19548 REGIONAL BANKING Crestar Paying $259M For Thrift in Baltimore

Crestar Financial Corp. expanded its empire to the north by agreeing to buy Loyola Capital Corp. of Baltimore, a $2.5 billion-asset thrift company, for $259.2 million in stock. Crestar, which is based in Richmond, Va., said the "binding agreement" calls for it to pay $32 per Loyola share, or 1.5 times the thrift's book value.

May 1

19189

Banc One Corp. is noncommittal about whether it will exercise its option to buy Premier Bancorp in Louisiana after June 30. But G. Lee Griffin, chairman of the still-growing Premier, says: "I don't think they're going to let our bank get away."

May 3

19483

Ratings of U.S. banks will diverge more sharply as the current cycle of improved earnings for banks comes to an end, according to the credit rating agency IBCA Inc. Changes in strategic focus and more volatility in earnings have made rating banks increasingly complicated. Ratings will come to depend much more on "who's got the right strategy and who screws up," said an IBCA senior vice president.

May 3

19485

Comerica Inc. said it agreed to buy Los Angeles-based Metrobank for $120 million in stock, a move that will increase the Detroit-based bank's California assets by 50%. Comerica will pay 1.7 times Metrobank's book value. The deal will bring Comerica $1.1 billion of deposits in the Los Angeles area, where it already has three branches.

May 4

19558

Bank of Boston Corp. is selling off two of its five Puerto Rico retail branches and closing a third as part of an effort to refocus its business there on corporate banking. The bank did not disclose the price for the branches and deposits. The transactions are expected to close this quarter.

May 5

19593 COMMUNITY BANKING Strapped Farmer Mac Asks for Eased Rules

Farmer Mac, which has struggled for seven years to build a secondary market for farm loans, is now turning to Congress for help. The government- sponsored concern, formally known as the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., is lobbying for broader powers and for an extension of a deadline for meeting new capital rules.

May 1

19195

Nationar's creditors could lose almost $30 million once the New York State Banking Department finishes selling the failed check clearing company's businesses and evaluates all claims.

Financial Picture Graybox possible

May 2

19453

Jefferson Savings Bancorp's annual meeting turned stormy when a number of shareholders accused management of ignoring their interests. The shareholders griped about lack of representation on Jefferson's board, lack of a cash dividend, a recently adopted anti-takeover plan, and excessive management compensation.

May 4

19550

On the morning of April 19, a young banker named Charles H. Porter stepped out of his office and snapped a photograph that tore the hearts of millions of people around the world. It was Mr. Porter, a credit specialist at Liberty Bancorp in Oklahoma City, who took the picture of a firefighter carrying the bloodied and limp body of a 1-year-old after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

May 5

19600 SMALL BUSINESS Banks Catch Flak At Small Firm Parley

Small business owners from Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico gathered in Dallas to come up with 50 ways to improve their business environments. A certain amount of their criticism was directed at banks. A report from the session will be presented to Congress and the President.

May 2

19424

After years of taking advantage of the secondary market for SBA loans, Bank of Commerce in San Diego has started to reap the rewards of holding them for the interest income. The bank, which is the seventh-largest lender under the Small Business Administration's 7(a) loan program, stands to bolster future earnings as a result of the decision.

Growing power statistics on p. 6

May 2

19423 COMPLIANCE Experts Help Banks Take Out the Trash

Jordan, Lawrence & Associates is trying to change the banking industry's pack-rat ways. The St. Louis-based consulting firm has created software to help banks sort through their masses of records and figure out which can be discarded.

May 4

19529

The test of new Community Reinvestment Act rules will be how well bank examiners apply them. To that end, representatives of the bank and thrift regulators met to design new CRA exams and develop a training schedule for examiners.

May 4

19555

Compliance officers' jobs have changed in the recent shift to performance-based CRA rules. They no longer can meet their banks' obligations by organizing summit meetings with civic leaders and leading CRA discussions at board meetings. Instead, they must focus on the number, size, and distribution of loans to low-income and minority segments of the community.

May 4

19553 CREDIT UNIONS NCUA Leaders' Rift Is Out in the Open

A fault line is running through the National Credit Union Administration. On one side stands Chairman Norman E. D'Amours and most of the agency staff. Across the chasm is director Robert Swan. The fissures, created by politics and personalities, have become glaringly obvious.

May 1

19168

The Illinois Credit Union League is rallying its membership to defend themselves from a traditional foe: bankers. Donald R. Edwards, the league's senior vice president of governmental and public affairs, encouraged credit unions to inform members of banker-credit union conflicts, to write and visit their lawmakers, and to contribute money to industry political action committees.

May 1

19165

Credit unions ought to chip in to rebuild the flagging Savings Association Insurance Fund, according to the Florida Bankers Association. Credit union reaction to the proposal was resoundingly negative.

May 1

19166 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs Amex Waiving Fee For MCI Customers

American Express Co. and MCI Communications are teaming up to offer their mutual customers cost-saving benefits. MCI telephone subscribers who qualify can earn a $55 credit and 30 minutes of calling-card calls free each month.

May 5

19598

PNC Bank Corp. and NationsBank Corp. have joined the Visa purchasing card program, bringing the number of issuers to 12. Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International have estimated the market for purchasing cards to be $300 billion annually. Only 1% of all such purchases under $5,000 are captured on cards.

May 5

19580

SafeCard Services Inc. formally adopted a new holding company name - Ideon Group Inc. - at its annual meeting. Some shareholders expressed concern about the ongoing legal battle with former chairman Peter Halmos that is costing the company $1 million every quarter.

May 3

19492

MCI announced a major expansion of its transaction processing offerings, including a complete line of services for credit card transactions. The long-distance provider which takes on the likes of AT&T and Sprint, now has its sights on Nabanco and other merchant processors.

May 2

19464 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS NationsBank Opens Private Bank in N.Y.

Determined to gain a foothold in the Northeast, NationsBank Corp. has quietly set up a New York office catering to the wealthy. It is the superregional's first U.S. private banking office outside its home base in the Southeast.

May 2

19457

In the 16 years that Anthony R. Gray has been with SunBank Capital Management, there have been many ups and downs. Recently the unit has been rocked by some top-level defections, but Mr. Gray seems unfazed. "You're not as good as your peak," he says, "and not as bad as your trough."

May 3

19493

Liberty Financial Cos. is in serious discussions to buy a large piece of Wall Street Investor Services, sources said - talks aimed at merging units that manage full-service brokerage programs for banks. Such a deal would greatly increase Liberty's presence in the bank channel, doubling its client roster to 140 banks.

May 1

19186

An upturn in certificate of deposit rates over the past year has lessened the allure of funds and variable annuities. As a result, many third-party marketers are launching direct-mail campaigns and pushing their brokers harder to make up for the weaker investment climate.

May 1

19182 MORTGAGES Fleet Becomes No.3 Mortgage Servicer

In buying a $15 billion servicing portfolio from Household Mortgage Services, Fleet Mortgage Inc. became the third-largest home mortgage servicer - and one of only four to handle more than $100 billion of loans. At $105 billion, Fleet has replaced Norwest Mortgage Co. as No. 3.

May 4

19560

Ford Motor Co.'s Associates Corporation of America is being targeted by activists and lawyers who say the consumer loan unit has encouraged overcharges on home equity loans.

May 4

19562

The few remaining mortgage bank stocks are close to their 1995 highs, stimulated by a fortuitous combination of economics and season. The economy and interest rates have stabilized as the industry enters the spring homebuying season, the busiest time for mortgage bankers.

May 1

19188

Executives of the big California thrifts say they may shift from the popular cost-of-funds index in setting the rates on their home loans. They are looking for other options because investors have been turning up their noses at Cofi loans and because mortgage securities based on Cofi traded at a discount through much of the boom in adjustable-rate mortgages.

May 2

19444

Some veteran lenders to people with tarnished credit are complaining of overly aggressive pricing by newcomers. Since the home loan refinancing boom ended last year, mortgage banks which had originally agency-quality first mortgages are now flooding the B-to-D loan market.

May 3

19498 TECHNOLOGY A Player Tries to Mine A Niche in Cyberspace

Known primarily for his work as a financial adviser to entertainment celebrities, Lee Stein, chief executive and founder of First Virtual Holdings Inc., has become a pioneer in providing secure payments over the Internet.

May 5

19591

Unisys Corp. has joined 25 other vendors - including Intel Corp., maker of the microprocessing chips - to develop a parallel-processing server dubbed the Open Parallel Unisys Server. The systems are considered particularly useful to bankers for applications such as decision support and profitability analysis.

May 3

19488

NationsBank Corp. has agreed to use Sybase Inc. software for client/server systems throughout its operation.

May 2

19470

As bankers and regulators scrutinize the risks and rewards of investing in derivatives, a Silicon Valley software firm has developed a profitable niche serving this volatile market. Since its inception in 1986, Cats Software Inc. of Palo Alto has developed derivatives trading systems for money-center banks and investment houses.

May 1

19148

Seeking to standardize its back-office computing, Huntington Bancshares has signed a wide-ranging software license agreement with Hogan Systems Inc. Huntington will install a number of Hogan software products, replacing homegrown and third-party accounting systems that form the backbone of the bank's technology infrastructure.

May 4

19561 FINANCE Challenge at Sallie Picking Up Steam

Management at Sallie Mae has been dismissive of Albert L. Lord's proxy challenge since he formed an alternative directors' slate to be voted on at the company's May 25 shareholders' meeting. But as the meeting approaches, shareholder support is swelling behind Mr. Lord's bid to block Sallie Mae's privatization strategy.

May 2

19460

The new $9 billion loan for Time Warner Inc. and its cable subsidiaries underscores the banking industry's growing involvement in the rapidly changing media sector. The loan, led by Chemical Banking Corp. and supported by managing agents BankAmerica Corp., Bank of New York Co., and J.P. Morgan & Co. will refinance $5 billion of bank debt, replace about $3 billion of public and private debt from three cable acquisitions, and provide some working capital.

May 3

19512

As bankers seek funds to fuel double-digit loan growth, tighter bond spreads have provided a cheap source. Bankers Trust New York Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp., and First Union Corp. are among the contributors to a total of more than $2.175 billion in new notes.

May 4

19564

Hammered by months of publicity about derivatives trading woes and news of the a $157 million first-quarter loss, Bankers Trust's shares have been hovering beneath $55 - down more than 25% from their 52-week high. That spells opportunity for those who believe the worst is over at the money- center. Indeed, the price jumped $1.50 to $56 on Wednesday.

May 4

19565

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