WASHINGTON
Thrifts may shift deposits out of the high-cost Savings Association Insurance Fund provided the moves are made voluntarily by customers, the FDIC said. The announcement is expected to spur other agencies to act on long-delayed applications. Page 2
A task force on money laundering recommended that reporting of suspicious transactions be required of all financial institutions. That includes nonbanks such as brokerage firms and securities dealers, the panel said in its report to the Group of Seven industrial nations. Page 3
REGIONAL BANKING
Traditional commercial bankers are "becoming an endangered species" as banks clamor for top executives who possess technological know-how, marketing savvy, and even asset-management skills. That's the word from Windle B. Priem, one of the nation's leading executive recruiters. Page 4
The head of Boatmen's Kansas bank is retiring. Darrell G. Knudson doubled the size of Wichita's Fourth Financial and then sold it St. Louis- based Boatmen's last year. Page 5
COMMUNITY BANKING
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A look at two small banks that have started Internet services leaves Paul Nadler unshaken in its wiser to leave the pioneering to someone else. Page 6
MORTGAGES
One of the highest-ranking women in the home loan business is leaving Dime Savings Bank of New York to run General Electric's mortgage services group. Jenne K. Britell ran Dime's $20 billion mortgage operation. She'll be executive VP and general manager of GE Capital Mortgage Services in Cherry Hill, N.J., leading its conduit and servicing businesses as well as its home equity portfolio and its inventory-finance lending to other lenders. Page 10
Bank regulators are worried that programs to securitize cash flow from mortgage servicing along with the loan itself could lead to a decline in the value of the loan holdings they have seized from insolvent institutions. Page 10
CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs
Boatmen's Bancshares is providing a prepaid card for Maritz Inc., a fellow St. Louis company that offers employee incentive packages to Fortune 500 companies. Page 12
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
Bankers' initial joy over the Supreme Court's decision in favor of nationwide insurance sales by banks is giving way to more practical concerns that their programs pass regulatory muster. Banks are generally content with draft guidelines from the Comptroller's Office, but Federal guidance, while welcome, will hardly ease the local headaches plaguing many interstate bankers.
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Wells Fargo launched four proprietary fixed annuities in California and plans to start selling them elsewhere in August. Wells has been selling only other companies's fixed annuities. Page 14
TECHNOLOGY
Wells Fargo says it has nearly finished a key part its consumer lending overhaul - a system that will let it approve auto loans in as little as 10 minutes. It now takes at least an hour. Page 16
Norwest plans to funnel as much as 20% of its automated clearing house volume - as much as 40 million transactions a year - through a private- sector network that competes with the Fed. The Pax system now handles only 7.2 million. Page 16
FINANCE
Yield-hungry commercial banks were among the buyers in last week's auction of USL Capital's $450 million portfolio of below-investment-grade loans. The Ford unit's loans came to market at a particularly good time, a loan trader said. Back page
