Headlines:
Court Nominee Has History with GSEs
White House Counsel Harriet Miers, President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, has never been a judge, but she does have some experience in financial services.
In her time at the White House she has worked on efforts to revamp the regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, several sources said. She was a deputy White House chief of staff in 2003 when Freddie's accounting scandal pushed the issue to the forefront, and sources said she worked with people on formulating the administration's position.
She has had a long career as a lawyer. The disaster recovery and trading software company SunGard Data Systems Inc. hired her to work on a contract dispute. According to The Wall Street Journal, one of SunGard's clients, Southwest Securities, had hired two SunGard employees, and the resulting case dragged on for several years before it was settled.
Putting Ms. Miers on the high court would remove a critic of the government-sponsored enterprises from the White House. Sources said she has strongly supported tough measures to rein in Fannie and Freddie. The White House has sought to require a new regulator to significantly reduce their mortgage portfolios.
President Bush nominated Ms. Miers on Monday to fill the seat being vacated by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who announced this summer that she would retire.
Remote Capture Service from Mellon
Mellon Financial Corp., which had been pilot testing a remote check-capture service with six Pittsburgh customers since late last year, is now offering the service nationwide, it said Monday.
The service lets customers convert checks into digital images and transmit them electronically to Mellon Bank, which processes the payments through its wholesale lockbox service or deposits them in customers' accounts.
