Today's News

WILLIAM F. KEENAN has taken his bank card marketing career down a radically different path. The former U S West and Natwest executive has formed a marketing and advertising agency for the "new age of multimedia convergence." Page 12

WASHINGTON

a government plan to bring call reports under generally accepted accounting principles does not go far enough to reduce paperwork burden, bankers argued in comment letters. Page 2

The central bank will not sit back and watch new powers from competing agencies make bank holding companies obsolete, Fed Governor Susan M. Phillips said. Page 2

COMMUNITY BANKING

A South Carolina thrift rebuffed a corporate raider's offer to withdraw a shareholder proposal to force the company's sale in return for a board seat. Page 5

Iowa community banks are hoping that giant NationsBank will put some of its rural branches up for sale once it enters the state through its pending acquisition of Boatmen's Bancshares. Page 5

REGIONAL BANKING

Star Bank in Cincinnati has a deal to buy seven Ohio branches and $100 million in deposits from Mid Am of Bowling Green. Mid Am says it is pulling back to focus on its core market. Page 6

TCF Financial of Minneapolis has applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to convert its four thrift subsidiaries to national banks. Page 7

TECHNOLOGY

Barnett introduced its long-awaited pilot test of television banking. In a partnership with Time Warner Cable, 4,000 Orlando homes have been equipped with digital interactive TV. Page 9

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CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs

Equifax is retreating from the health-care information business it entered nearly three years ago to home in on financial and insurance-based services. Page 13

CITIZENS BANK in Rhode Island will issue cobranded cards with the Shop at Home television network, which is said to have 500,000 customers. Page 13

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

INSURANCE: Having just got their feet wet in selling insurance, banks are now contemplating the day when they'll be able to plunge into underwriting. They are encouraged by an OCC decision last week to let them create subsidiaries to house nontraditional businesses. Page 14

MORTGAGES

An accounting rule that gives broad leeway in valuing servicing assets will distort pricing and make it hard to compare companies' earnings, some lenders say. Page 18

The mood of this year's Realtors convention was decidedly subdued. Page 18

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