The U.S. Council on International Banking, a trade association representing 370 domestic and international banks, has named Vincent Maulella its chairman for 1995.
Mr. Maulella, who is a vice president in Chemical Banking Corp.'s Geoserve unit, succeeds Susan Fedele, vice president of CoreStates Financial Corp.
As chairman, Mr. Maulella, 52, will help formulate the organization's policy positions. He will also select committee chairmen who will look for solutions to technical problems confronting the industry.
In its 70th year, Mr. Maulella said, the council is pursuing a mission to "provide a forum for members to discuss operational issues that affect the members and to standardize the procedures to ensure a safe and efficient functioning of the marketplace."
The efforts Mr. Maulella expects to oversee in the coming year include pushing to have its members' voices heard as regulations covering letters of credit are refined and studying the potential impact of extended Fed Wire funds transfer operating hours.
For the last five years, the council has worked with the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Law on revising and drafting uniform commercial code provisions, which are sets of standardized state laws governing financial contracts.
The council will continue to advise on drafting the final rules for Article 5, which deals with letters of credit. Drafting the rules has been in the works for a little more than three years and will probably go to states for approval sometime in 1995.
Mr. Maulella said the council will also study the effect of recent interstate banking regulation on the coming expansion of Fed Wire operating hours.
Fed Wire, a high-speed funds transfer network that links the Federal Reserve banks with member institutions and the Treasury, currently operates on a 10-hour day but will expand its hours to 18 in the fourth quarter of 1997.
The council will look at how such changes might affect bank operations, such as end-of-day account settlement.
"The point is (the changes) will have an impact," Mr. Maulella said. "It's simply a matter now of trying to size what that impact is and prepare the marketplace."
He said the council will also look at further developing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for letters of credit collections and funds transfers. Disputes occur on a regular basis in the letter of credit arena.
"Half the time, we are litigating with another bank, and the other half of the time, with a corporation who is a customer or potential customer," Mr. Maulella said. "Litigation has a severe impact on the relationship."
Alternate dispute resolution, or ADR, involves either mediation or binding arbitration between two or more corporations to bypass years of costly litigation and subsequent appeals.
ADR has been used by the banking industry intermittently for several years. But banks have taken an increased interest in the practice recently, said Peter Kaskell, senior attorney at the Center for Public Resources, a nonprofit group of law firms and corporations devoted to developing alternatives to lengthy litigation.
"Bank of America was really sort of the pioneer in putting arbitration clauses in many of their loan agreements," Mr. Kaskell said. "Now, there are a fair number of banks in their loan documents and other agreements that provide for ADR."
Officials of the Center for Public Resources have organized a committee consisting of senior attorneys from several banks, including Chase Manhattan, to consider greater use of arbitration and mediation.
Under Mr. Maulella, the council will encourage participation on such committees.
Mr. Maulella began his banking career at Manufacturers Hanover Trust in 1970. He attended his first council workshop in 1973 and has since led the association's letter of credit committee and been treasurer and vice chairman.
Dan Taylor, council president, said Mr. Maulella "has a long track record of significant contributions to the organization. We look forward to his term as chairman and know he will be an effective leader."
