Today's News

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: PETER HERLIHY, a vice president at Fleet Investment Services, says a new service, automatic placing of bond dividends in deposit accounts, gives investors immediate access to their money. Page 9 WASHINGTON: FRANK NEWMAN, deputy Treasury secretary, says Congress should not try to block thrifts from chartering commercial banks as a way of evading high deposit insurance premiums. Page 2 THE FEDERAL RESERVE has raised the asset threshold at which bank holding companies must have their financial statements audited, to $500 million, from $150 million. Page 3 REGIONAL BANKING: COMPASS BANCSHARES issued a "fight letter" to its shareholders, asking them to reject a proxy challenge from founder and director Harry B. Brock Jr. Page 4 AN OFF-BALANCE-SHEET mechanism called Capital One Funding Corp. lets Banc One officers lend at competitive rates and boost return on assets by selling these low-yielding loans, with credit enhancement, as floating-rate option notes to institutional investors. Page 5 MORTGAGES: INTEREST RATES could climb again if the Federal Reserve tightens in order to support the dollar, so the mortgage business, which has gone unscathed so far, is not yet in the clear. Page 6 KEEPING UP with changes in the marketplace is essential to mortgage banks' survival, writes David Partridge of Towers Perrin. Page 7 COMMUNITY BANKING: IN AN EFFORT to expand its niche in the land trust business, Cole Taylor Bank, based in the Chicago suburbs, has acquired about 1,000 new accounts from Glenview State Bank for an undisclosed price. Page 11 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: FIRST DATA Corp.'s card services group has signed a letter of intent to supply processing support to Norwest Card Services' merchant credit card business. Page 14 FLORIDA STATE University, which has been leading the charge on high-tech campus identification cards, has opened a card research and training center. It will teach other schools how to establish such programs and pursue more general goals, as well. Page 16 TECHNOLOGY: DAVID BERRY of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods says the failure of Barings PLC can teach U.S. financial institutions the need for strict oversight rules as well as for advanced technological monitoring of trading risk. Page 19 FINANCE: BANKERS TRUST is not the only financial institution compelled to cut employment because its trading business is slowing - just one of the most recent and visible. The cutback reflected the same trend that compelled S.G. Warburg to announce the layoff of 27% of its equity derivatives traders. Back page A UNIT INVESTMENT trust consisting of stocks of 25 banks and thrifts from Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio is being offered to investors through the $10 million portfolio of First of Michigan Financial Institutions Trust. Page 22