Nonprofit to Market Bank One Student Loans
CHICAGO - Bank One Corp. said Monday that in an effort to cut costs, it is transferring the marketing responsibilities for its education lending division to an independent entity.The $264 billion-asset banking company has formed Education One Group Inc. through an alliance with USA Group, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit that guarantees federal student loans. USA Group owns Education One and employs about 65 former Bank One workers who had marketed student services for the bank.
Specific cost savings figures for Bank One were not available.
Bank One is the nation's largest originator of federally backed student loans. It expects its volume of federal and private education loans to exceed $2 billion this year.
The bank said it plans to continue its ties to USA Group Secondary Market Services, a separate subsidiary of the nonprofit that buys federal education loans issued by banks. The Education One partnership took effect Dec. 31.
- Louis Whiteman
2 Former N.Y. Bankers Settle SEC Charges
WASHINGTON - The Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday that it has settled insider trading charges against two former New York bankers.Richard H. Ference, a former vice president in the New York office of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Trust Co., was fined $2 million including $1 million for repayment of illegal profits.
Kevin J. Kirkbride, a former employee in the investment banking department at Salomon Smith Barney Inc., now a unit of Citigroup Inc., was fined $244,557, including $194,557 of repayments and a $50,000 penalty.
The SEC claimed that the bankers engaged in a two-year insider trading scheme involving more than a dozen stocks. Neither defendant admitted or denied liability, and the settlement ends the SEC's civil action.
- Cheryl Winokur
National Processing Buys Merchant Portfolio
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - National Processing Inc. said Monday that it has bought a merchant processing portfolio from Heartland Payment Systems LLC.The acquisition, consisting of 15,000 regional accounts, is about one-third of the portfolio of Heartland, a subsidiary of Heartland Bank of St. Louis.
Tom Wimsett, chief executive officer of National Processing, said the new Heartland accounts would generate about $15 million in additional annual revenue and would be accretive to the company's earnings immediately.
The accounts represent more than $2 billion in annual point of sale card transactions. Before the acquisition, National Processing - a subsidiary of Cleveland-based National City Corp. - handled more than $100 billion in transactions.
NYSE to Halt Trading of Contifinancial Stock
NEW YORK - The New York Stock Exchange said Monday that it would suspend trading in Contifinancial Corp. shares before the opening of the market on Wednesday and apply to delist the stock.The exchange said Contifinancial has failed to meet its criteria for listing, noting that its global market capitalization is less than $50 million and its average price for 30 days has been less than $1.
- Joshua Brockman
Providian, NextCard Settle Suit over Web Ads
SAN FRANCISCO - NextCard Inc. and Providian Financial Corp. have settled a lawsuit over banner advertisements.The lawsuit, filed in July, claimed that Providian copied one of NextCard's on-line banner ads. At the time, Providian's senior vice president of electronic commerce, James Rowe, said the lawsuit was without merit, but the company discontinued its ad, which ran only one week.
A press release did not disclose the terms of the settlement, but said they did not involve money. NextCard said it made a "business decision" to save time and money by settling.
- Lisa Fickenscher
