Today's News

WASHINGTON: INDUSTRY representatives are scrambling to dissuade policymakers from sticking banks with the tab for repairing the thrift insurance fund. Page 2 ONLY BANKS with satisfactory Community Reinvestment Act ratings would be permitted to affiliate with securities firms under an amendment approved by the House Banking Committee. Page 2 REGIONAL BANKING: MITSUBISHI BANK's Bank of California is doing a dismal job of making home mortgage loans to blacks and Latinos, a prominent community group charges. Page 5 PARIS-BASED Credit Agricole has applied to the Federal Reserve Board to open a representative office in Houston as part of a broader expansion into energy-related financial transactions. Page 5 FINANCE: WARY OF rising stock prices and falling credit standards, PaineWebber analysts sliced investment ratings on nine major banks and thrifts this week. Back page MORTGAGES: AS THEY GATHER in New York this week for a major convention, mortgage bankers are divided over the outlook for the rest of the year. Page 12 TOP LENDING officers are being wooed from their employers in as little time as it takes to say "originate." The hiring companies are counting on their new heavy hitters - paid hefty commissions in many cases - to produce handsome volumes in the face of a continued market slump. Page 12 COMMUNITY BANKING: A PROPOSAL to combine Ohio's bank, thrift, and credit union agencies into one superregulator has drawn fire from state-chartered credit unions. Page 6 STERLING BANK and Trust, the tiny Baltimore bank that sued an institution many times its size to enforce a merger agreement, won $650,000 in an out- of-court settlement. Page 6 CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs: PNC BANK CORP. is following through on a promise it made earlier this year to expand its credit card portfolio rapidly. Page 10 VISA U.S.A. has named a veteran brand manager as executive vice president of marketing and product management, filling a vacancy that lasted nearly 20 months. Page 10 TECHNOLOGY: CHEMICAL Banking Corp. has appointed Diane Varrin Eschleman chief administrative officer of Geoserve, its fee-based-services subsidiary. Page 14 COUNTRYWIDE Funding Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, has selected Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system to standardize operations at its data processing centers and lending offices. Page 14 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: BANKS CONTINUED their march into the mutual fund business during the first quarter of 1995, boosting assets under management by 7.3%, to $327.8 billion. Page 23 WHEN NATIONSBANK's new joint venture with a British money management firm begins operating in July, other U.S. bankers will be watching. Page 23