Today's News

WASHINGTON

A Fed proposal to subject bank subsidiaries to new capital restrictions has come under attack by other regulators.

Barnett agreed to pay the government $100,000 to settle alleged Bank Secrecy Act violations.

COMMUNITY BANKING

Carolina First of South Carolina has a long-sought deal to buy First Southeast Financial, for $65 million in stock.

REGIONAL BANKING

The top executives of recently acquired Great Western Financial will not be asked to stay at the combined company, Washington Mutual said.

CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs

Diebold is discontinuing its ATM marketing and distribution agreement with IBM.

A former Visa Interactive executive is running a recently formed NYCE division dedicated to home banking and bill payment.

INTERNATIONAL

Mergers and foreign exchange fluctuations reshuffled the rankings of the top banking companies last year, an American Banker survey found. Bankers and analysts expect more changes as banks try to shed overcapacity and achieve efficiencies.

MORTGAGES

With profits increasingly elusive, some mortgage lenders are eyeing fast-growing HomeSide, the joint venture formed by BankBoston and Barnett.

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

PNC moved the wrap account product management team into its brokerage.

Congress is set to overhaul individual retirement accounts.

TECHNOLOGY

ON-LINE BANKING: As privacy concerns rise along with electronic commerce, bankers are treading lightly, in part because no firm guidelines are in place.

MARKET MONITOR

In its U.S. market debut, Banco de Santiago, a Chilean bank, plans to issue $200 million of Yankee bonds in the next two weeks.

bank stocks surged on word the Fed had declined to raise interest rates.