WASHINGTON
A FEDERAL judge in Savannah has made it considerably more difficult to bring massive class-action claims against banks. Page 3
THE HOUSE is expected to approve today a measure that would bring nonbank electronic benefit transfer companies under the same anti-tying restrictions banks face. Page 3
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
A SMALL Maryland company is selling a service designed to help banks value thinly traded securities, using the financial records of publicly traded companies as a yardstick. Page 10
ST. LOUIS shopkeepers and small-business owners have been getting some unexpected visitors lately: officers of Mark Twain Bancshares pitching retirement-plan products. Page 11
REGIONAL BANKING
NationsBank wants to expand into New Mexico by skirting interstate branching restrictions in Texas, but Texas Banking Commissioner Catherine A. Ghiglieri is determined to prevent it. She is suing the NationsBank subsidiary Sun World to prevent the interstate expansion. "If they want to relocate into New Mexico and give up their branches in Texas, I wouldn't have any problem with it," Ms. Ghiglieri said. Page 4
JAMES WERT, chief investment officer at Cleveland-based KeyCorp, will take early retirement to spend more time with his family. Page 4
MORTGAGES
THE FED is throwing its considerable clout behind mortgage credit scoring, becoming one of the first banking agencies to weigh in on the growing industry practice. Page 13
COMMUNITY BANKING
Directors show confidence in a bank by owning a big chunk of its stock, so selling it is a touchy business. "You have to do what you have to do," says one who did. Page 14
a small Pittsburgh thrift is selling all its branches and blaming a period of government conservatorship in part for its difficulties. Page 15
TECHNOLOGY
MELLON BANK plans to install in all its 450 branches interactive terminals that visually link customers and bank employees. Page 16
CHASE MANHATTAN has become one of the first to use technology that identifies customers by their voices, rather than by keyed-in PINs or passwords. Page 17
FINANCE
AFTER FLOCKING to capital markets earlier this year, banks held off issuing straight debt in the second quarter, a stance many capital market experts expect will continue in the second half. Page 22
WITH BANKING REFORM stalled in Congress, analysts are fretting that Depression-era laws threaten to reduce investment banking profits. Page 24
