CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs:
UNDER THE LEADERSHIP of Robert M. Bouza, Puerto Rico's Key Federal Savings is joining a small cadre of card companies that target the Hispanic population.
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WASHINGTON:
SBA OFFICIALS are hustling to assure client banks that the agency, which was closed during the three-week government shutdown, would be immune to another involuntary furlough.
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CONCERNED ABOUT foreign gangs' efforts to infiltrate the world banking system, House Banking Chairman Jim Leach is holding a hearing on the problem.
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REGIONAL BANKING:
STATE BANKING regulators are closing ranks and cracking down on national banks' use of the 30-mile rule to sidestep state branching laws and expand across state lines.
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COMMUNITY BANKING:
MONTANA OFFICIALS ordered up a draft of their plan to offer Swiss- style confidential bank accounts after getting a positive response to the idea from Treasury and Justice officials.
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A MAINE THRIFT is scrambling to raise $10 million to repay an FDIC promissory note and interest. As collateral, the thrift had pledged all common stock in its subsidiary bank.
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MORTGAGES:
ON THE HEELS of an American Banker inquiry, the Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to restrict lenders to a 2-point charge for veterans who refinance VA-guaranteed home loans.
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RUTH CLEARY has been criss-crossing the country lately to raise $7 million in capital for expansion of Northwest Cos., the foreclosure firm she heads.
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INVESTMENT PRODUCTS:
THE INK has scarcely dried on the merger agreement between Wells Fargo and First Interstate, but already their investment units are feeling the impact of the consolidation.
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BANKERS OFTEN FRET that Charles Schwab & Co. is eating their lunch. This week one of its top executives did just that at an ABA convention - and gave the industry some bad marks.
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TECHNOLOGY:
BANKERS WERE TREATED like virtual celebrities at a recent conference of the data security industry, where Internet wonks gathered to discuss the potential for electronic commerce and their nascent industry.
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IBM WAS FREED from a court-ordered restriction on its technology services business, but the change isn't likely to alter the bank outsourcing field, observers said.
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FINANCE:
TREASURY's Lawrence H. Summers was in earnest when he told congressional Democrats that the federal budget snafu could jeopardize triple-A ratings of U.S. banks. Trouble is, there aren't any pure triple-A banks left in the U.S.
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FEARS of a credit crunch and dwindling net interest margins appear to be convincing investors to be more stingy when they select bank equities, a Dean Witter analyst contends.
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