In Brief (four items)

Bank One's Chief Cleaning Up on Its Stock

CHICAGO - James Dimon has racked up a fortune in Bank One Corp. stock gains since he became chairman and chief executive officer late last month.Mr. Dimon started on the job March 27. Two days before that he bought two million shares of Bank One stock, which by midday Wednesday had risen almost $15 million in market value, to over $71 million.

The purchase, at $28.375, was reported Wednesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At midday the stock trading 30% above that figure, at $35.6875.

Mr. Dimon was also granted 35,272 shares of Bank One stock, worth $1.25 million at midday.

Bank One has traded steadily higher since announcing it had hired Mr. Dimon as a successor to John B. McCoy, who resigned as CEO in December. Mr. Dimon was president of Citigroup Inc. before leaving abruptly in the fall of 1998.

Bank One has released no details of the cash and bonus compensation Mr. Dimon is to receive.

- Liz Moyer


Online Supermarket for Amex, Loan Firm

MINNEAPOLIS - American Express Co. and Prism Financial Corp. have set up an online "mortgage supermarket" that consumers can use to submit applications and shop for home loans.The Web site, which is linked to American Express' site, can match information submitted by a consumer with hundreds of loan products in its database provide a list of available loans with instant, customized price quotes. Users who get confused can call dedicated account managers at Prism.

Prism acts as both a mortgage banker and a mortgage broker, funding a loan or brokering it to another lender according to which is the better deal for the borrower. The Web site follows this model.

Last month Prism announced that it had agreed to sell itself to Royal Bank of Canada in a deal that is expected to close in the next 45 to 75 days. The company's stock tanked last year after the suicide of its founder and chief executive, Bruce Abrams.

- Marc Hochstein


Chase Hires Citi's Co-Head of Syndication

NEW YORK - Chase Manhattan Corp. has hired a senior loan syndication executive from Citigroup Inc.Ann Lane has joined Chase as managing director in global loan syndication, focusing on corporate finance and capital markets activities. Ms. Lane reports to Peter Gleysteen, Chase's global head of loan syndication.

Ms. Lane was managing director and co-head of loan syndication at Citi.

- Liz Moyer


Regions of Alabama Has $55M Louisiana Deal

BIRMINGHAM - Regions Financial Corp. said late Tuesday that it has a deal to buy First National Bancshares of Alexandria, La., for $54.8 million in stock.First National is the holding company for Security First National Bank, which has $245 million of assets and seven branches in central Louisiana.

Regions has $42.7 billion of assets and 740 branches in eight southeastern states.

"We are very pleased to expand our Louisiana franchise through affiliation with First National," said Carl E. Jones Jr., president and chief executive officer of Regions. "Security First is a high-performing bank and will be an excellent addition to our Louisiana banking operations."

The deal, which will be accounted for as a purchase, calls for Regions to exchange 0.7045 shares of its stock for each share of First National. It is expected to close during the third quarter.

- Louis Whiteman

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