Today's News

WASHINGTON: BANKS WILL HAVE an easier time distributing mutual funds with back-end loads, thanks to a new legal opinion from the Comptroller's office. Page 2 CALIFORNIA FEDERAL Bank plans to issue its shareholders a new security that would share in 25% of any cash proceeds from a pending goodwill suit against the federal government, but some investors are skeptical. Page 4 REGIONAL BANKING: BANK AUTO LENDERS, who spent a good part of 1994 worrying about pricing pressures and thin margins, face a host of other concerns this year: growing competition, technological change, legal and regulatory problems, and a potential sales slump. Page 10 TECHNOLOGY: AN ELITE 20 to 25 institutions are making it more difficult for midsize banks to compete for automated clearing house business. Page 22 CFI PROSERVICES Inc. announced last week that first-quarter earnings would be much lower than analysts' estimates - sending the banking software company's stock into a tailspin. Page 20 CREDIT UNIONS: GRIPING ABOUT regulation is becoming customary at gatherings of credit union officials, but it's still unusual for a regulator to complain about his own agency - as NCUA director Robert Swan did this month at the Texas Credit Union League's annual convention. Page 6 THE INDUSTRY's largest trade group has drafted a plan that would let it monitor how liquidity centers invest credit unions' money. But at least some corporate credit unions are calling the idea a power grab. Page 6 COMMUNITY BANKING: IN THIS YEAR of the certificate of deposit, community banks are trying some new twists on some old selling strategies. Page 14 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: PLENTY HAS BEEN happening between court dates in the antitrust litigation between Dean Witter, Discover & Co. and Visa U.S.A. For instance, the financial services giant has added onetime Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork to its battery of attorneys. Page 16 MORTGAGES: IN ATLANTIC CITY - where the ATMs dispense $50 bills - pessimism is against the law. And speakers at a northeast regional conference of mortgage bankers proved to be a pretty law-abiding bunch. Page 18 TWO POOLS of home equity loans worth $2.2 billion are on the block, according to observers and executives in the industry. Page 18 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: AN OREGON FIRM that sells investment products through banks has beefed up its sales ranks in an effort to get more clients. Page 19 FINANCE: CORESTATES' cost-cutting plan is expected to be released internally as early as today, and one analyst predicts its goal will be to realize by the end of next year annual savings of $80 million, or 6% of 1994 overhead. Back page

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