Executive Briefing

WASHINGTON U.S. Plan Hits Banks For Bulk of SAIF Tab

The government is preparing a $12 billion plan to shore up the Savings Association Insurance Fund - and commercial banks would pay more than half the tab. Banks would pay most of the annual interest on bonds sold in 1987 to start the thrift cleanup; savings institutions would pay a one-time fee to rebuild the thrift fund; and the life of the Resolution Trust Corp. would be extended to cover future thrift losses.

May 8

19671

President Clinton would probably ignite a firestorm of protest within the banking industry if he nominated Assistant Treasury Secretary Alicia Munnell for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Bankers know Ms. Munnell from a controversial study that concluded that banks discriminate against minorities. Ms. Munnell also has stirred controversy in a number of other areas.

May 11

18105

Glass-Steagall legislation cleared the House Banking Committee, but it now moves to the Commerce Committee, where it faces a tougher challenge. The commerce panel - traditionally more friendly to the securities and insurance industry than to banking - has 30 days to consider the Glass- Steagall bill following Tuesday's 29-to-8 vote.

May 11

18107

In the first case of its kind to reach the Supreme Court, Barnett Banks Inc. is asking the justices to resolve whether states can block bank insurance sales in small towns. Barnett said the court should hear the case because two federal appeals courts have interpreted the law differently. Banking advocates welcomed the long-awaited appeal.

May 10

18058 REGIONAL BANKING U.S. Bancorp Buying West One for $1.6B U.S. Bancorp said it will merge with West One Bancorp in a stock transaction valued at $1.6 billion. The deal will marry two multistate holding companies under the U.S. Bancorp name with $30 billion in total assets, $4 billion in market capitalization, 14,500 employees, and 670 branches in six states before likely consolidations.

May 9

18013

Bowing to pressure for improved shareholder returns, Chase Manhattan Corp. said it has hired a prominent consultant to advise it on what is likely to be an aggressive cost-cutting program. Chase has retained Tandon Capital Associates, which is run by former McKinsey & Co. executive Chandrika Tandon.

May 8

19673

In action that could reverberate throughout the consumer finance industry, attorneys in Georgia and Alabama have filed massive litigation against World Acceptance Corp. and 30 other companies, claiming Truth-in- Lending violations.

May 8

19669

AmSouth Bancorp announced the departure of two of its top eight officers, amid a sweeping program to cut costs. The Birmingham, Ala.-based company said senior executive vice presidents W. Michael Graves and A. Fox deFuniak 3d had resigned.

May 12

18126 COMMUNITY BANKING Small Banks Skewer 1st Chicago on Fees

Community banks and thrifts in the Chicago area are teeing off on First National Bank of Chicago over its new policy of charging customers $3 for some teller transactions. The banks are not only lampooning their big rival in advertisements, but are aggressively wooing First National's customers.

May 9

18004

First Citizens Bancshares of Raleigh, N.C., gussied up its offer to acquire RS Financial Corp., North Carolina's largest thrift, after its initial unsolicited bid was rejected.

May 9

18003

Sterling Bank and Trust Co., the tiny Baltimore bank that sued a bank many times its size to enforce a merger agreement, won $650,000 in an out- of-court settlement.

May 10

18043

A proposal to combine Ohio's bank, thrift, and credit union agencies into a superregulator has drawn fire from state-chartered credit unions. The merged divisions would be supervised by a superintendent of financial institutions. Examiners would be cross-trained in all three industries, though lead examiners would be specialists.

May 10

18042 SMALL BUSINESS BayBanks Effort Spurs Innovation

BayBanks' Convenient Business Credit loan looks like any other small- business loan product. But Joe Roller, managing director of small-business marketing at BayBank, said Basic, or Business Automated Scoring and Information System, is the result of changes that began nearly two years ago.

May 9

19889

Despite efforts in recent years to expand its loan programs, the Small Business Administration gets only mixed support from entrepreneurs - even those who have benefited from its help. That conclusion was among the findings in a survey of 409 owners and managers of companies with annual sales of $1 million to $3 million, compiled by the Wirthlin Group, as part of Keycorp's Survey of Small Business Sentiment.

May 9

19888 COMPLIANCE Boatmen's Gains From CRA Program

The community reinvestment effort of Boatmen's Bancshares gets sterling marks from regulators - and solid returns for shareholders. "The product line is designed to make money," says Norman Tice, one of the people who runs the company's CRA program.

May 11

18083

Regulatory relief legislation, which stands a good chance of passage, would reduce lending disclosures, ease community reinvestment standards, and lessen the industry's supervisory burden. The plans could go a long way toward curbing the industry's rising compliance costs.

May 11

18070 CREDIT UNIONS Insiders in Fraud, Patelco Execs Say

Patelco Credit Union board members and executives have asked the Justice Department to investigate evidence that credit union insiders defrauded the government in order to kill an acquisition. Separately, the credit union's supervisory committee is probing the accusers for alleged management abuses.

May 8

19614

Three senators have introduced a bill that would destroy a pillar of the credit union industry: its federal tax exemption. The Unlimited Savings Allowance Tax Act of 1995 was introduced by Republican Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Democrats Sam Nunn of Georgia and Robert Kerrey of Nebraska. It would impose an 11% flat tax on virtually all businesses, including credit unions..

Domenici photo

May 8

19617 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs Gemplus Buying No.1 Card Maker

Gemplus Group of France, the leading maker of plastic cards with computer chips inside, announced an agreement to acquire the card factories of Minneapolis-based DataCard Corp. The deal makes Gemplus the world's largest producer of plastic payment cards.

Top card producers N.A., p. 1

May 12

18167

MasterCard International has named Alan J. Heuer president of its U.S. region, ending a four-month search to replace Peter S.P. Dimsey. Mr. Heuer had been executive vice president for retail operations at Bank of New York for the last three years.

May 9

18012

American Express will pay an estimated $24 million over three years for the right to be called the National Basketball Association's official charge card. The NBA has not had such a sponsor since a contract with MasterCard International ended in 1989.

May 12

18146

Smart card enthusiasts say that someday one card with multiple functions - from banking to health care - will replace today's walletful of plastic. Critics, however, see some roadblocks.

May 11

18067 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS Bank Fund Assets Up 7.3% in Quarter

Banks continued their march into the mutual fund business during the first quarter, boosting assets under management by 7.3%, to $327.8 billion. The gains raised banks' share of the $2.3 trillion mutual fund business to 14.3%, from 14.1% at yearend and 10.5% in March 1994.

May 10

18040

When Sunburst Bank launched its bond mutual fund in the fall of 1993, it was following the lead of many other banks that had rushed into the booming fund market. But the community bank now wants out of the mutual fund business. It is seeking approval from shareholders to merge its only fund into an outside company's portfolio.

May 10

18052

The alliance between Charlotte, N.C.-based NationsBank Corp. and London- based Gartmore Capital Management is being billed as a model for joint ventures involving U.S. banks seeking international asset management expertise. When the venture begins operating in July, other U.S. banks will be watching.

May 10

18038 MORTGAGES New Move in Lending: Raids on Top Talent

The vicious competition in mortgage lending has moved to a new front: people. Top lending officers are being wooed from their employers in as little time as it takes to say "originate."

May 10

18037

Credit quality is slipping as low-downpayment loans proliferate, a research firm said. Home loans originated in 1994 are performing three times worse than 1993 loans performed at the same age, according to Mortgage Information Corp., San Francisco.

May 9

19898

Now that amendments to the rules for valuing mortgage servicing rights are on the verge of adoption, portfolio lenders and their associations are turning to another sticky accounting problem: how to account for transactions in which lenders swap mortgages for mortgage-backed securities to hold in their own portfolios.

May 8

19656 TECHNOLOGY NationsBank, B of A Buying Quicken Rival

BankAmerica Corp. and NationsBank Corp. said they had agreed to jointly acquire Meca Software Inc., a competitor of Microsoft Corp. and Intuit Inc. in the personal finance software business. The banks said they were acting to preserve a role for their industry in the hotly contested market for interactive services. They agreed to pay $35 million to H&R Block for Meca.

May 11

18110

Citicorp announced it will install a new branch automation system from Olivetti North America throughout its U.S. retail banking network. Citicorp signed an agreement with the subsidiary of Ing. C. Olivetti of Italy to start rolling out thousands of personal computers and related software this year for 450 banking offices.

May 12

18158

As part of an effort to provide consistency of service nationwide, Banc One Corp. has formed two units that will focus on managing operations and technology for its entire organization. An operations services company will standardize such services as item processing, deposit operations, and reengineering for the holding company's 65 affiliate banks.

May 8

19616 FINANCE Investors Bidding Up Banks in Baltimore

The stocks of some Baltimore-area banks and thrifts have sizzled in the past month as investors looked for more takeover plays after the purchase of two of the region's larger thrifts. First Union Corp.'s purchase of Columbia First Bank in northern Virginia, and Baltimore-based Loyola Capital Corp.'s acquisition by Crestar Financial Corp., sparked takeover speculation in southern Maryland and Baltimore.

May 8

19666

Analysts were eagerly awaiting clues about GreenPoint Financial Corp.'s refusal to detail how it will spend its excess capital it raised when it went public last year. At the big New York thrift institution's first annual shareholders meeting, chief executive Thomas Johnson said GreenPoint continues to look for "appropriate opportunities" to make acquisitions.

May 9

18011

Wary of rising stock prices and falling credit standards, analysts at PaineWebber Inc., New York, lowered ratings on nine major banks and thrifts.

May 10

18057

Salomon Brothers analyst Thomas Facciola initiated coverage of Capital One Financial Corp., saying the credit card spinoff is about to give investors some pleasant surprises.

May 11

18102

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