Today's News

WASHINGTON

Just a month into the job, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Phil Gramm is finding that it is harder to be a leader than an agitator. Page 4

REGIONAL

California Federal continues to beef up its management ranks by wooing top executives away from commercial bank competitors. Page 6

CORPORATE FINANCE

Interstate/Johnson Lane said it is forming a strategic alliance with Campbell Alliance Group, a medical consulting firm in Raleigh, N.C. Page 7

COMMUNITY

Popular federal programs that guarantee farm loans are already running out of money, forcing banks to assume more risk or abandon borrowers. Page 16

CARDS

Vital Processing Services has named Jonathan Palmer,a former chief technologist at Barnett Banks Inc., to be president and chief executive officer. The appointment fills an eight-month void at Vital, a fifty-fifty merchant processing joint venture of Visa U.S.A. and Synovus' Total System Services. Page 9

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

The insurer Nationwide Financial Services will break into KeyCorp's product menu next quarter with a cobranded variable annuity. Page 13

Most banks have stayed away from the hottest area of on-line financial services, a research firm says. Page 14

MORTGAGES

A program designed to finance $2.5 billion worth of low-income housing by 2002 has entered its second year, with growing participation by banks and mortgage lenders. Page 18

TECHNOLOGY

Telebanc Financial, an Internet-based bank, announced fourth-quarter results that put it in a class by itself among banks its size. Page 22

What began as a low-key initiative to get Citigroup's far-flung employees to collaborate has evolved into a robust, cost-saving communications channel for them, the company said. Page 23

MARKET MONITOR

Signaling that interest in bank stocks may have life yet, American Data Services launched a mutual fund to invest in banks - and what its managers call "banks in disguise" - that they say are undervalued. Page 32

Bank stocks could-at least for the short term-be beneficiaries of the current selloff in technology shares. Back page

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