Today's News

WASHINGTON

Flooded with calls from publicly owned thrifts that desperately want to buy back stock, the Office of Thrift Supervision is easing its repurchase policy. Page 2

With the Senate about to debate financialservices reform legislation, two key Republican senators signaled that they plan to fight the bill. Page 2

REGIONAL

National City will extract more savings this year than it had expected from the merger with First of America Bank Corp., but revenue gains will be smaller than predicted. Page 4

Fleet Financial Group of Boston has added a new twist to one-stop shopping, offering membership in a club that, for $5 a month, will get them anything from personal shopping services to travel assistance. Page 4

CARDS

Sears Roebuck is moving into the age of custom marketing. The retailer is adding more flavors to its plain-vanilla credit card program with the help of Total System Services. "We're going from no flexibility to essentially infinite flexibility," says Alan J. Lacy, president of Sears Credit. Page 8

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

National City has launched a registered investment adviser to serve institutional investors andretirement plan sponsors. Page 5

MORTGAGES

The California Mortgage Bankers Association is working with the IRS to reduce the time it takes to verify the incomes of self-employed borrowers. Page 6

Some issuers of jumbo mortgage-backed securities consistently produce riskier pools of loans than others, Moody's Investors Service found. Page 6

TECHNOLOGY

To help its financial industry clients reach small businesses on-line, Edify has introduced the Business Banking Suite. Page 9

MARKETS

Dain Rauscher Wessels, one of the banking industry's biggest fans, has lowered its projections for all the bank and thrift companies it covers. Back page

Shareholders of BankAmerica and NationsBank voted overwhelmingly in favor of the two companies' merger. Back page

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