Today's News

COMMUNITY BANKING: BANKING ANALYST Michael L. Mayo believes he's found a good way of picking small banks whose shares are worth buying. The secret? Figuring out which ones have cheap stock prices but hefty franchise value. Page 14 LOUISIANA is challenging Texas as the state with the most top-performing independent banks. Texas has held that distinction since California fell from grace in 1990. Last year, it had 22 institutions in the top 100, but Louisiana was second, with 15. Page 14 WASHINGTON: CONSUMER ACTIVIST Ralph Nader blasted proposals to exempt small banks from the Community Reinvestment Act, arguing that many of these institutions do little lending in their communities. Page 2 INTERPRETING the recent federal appeals court ruling in Mountain Side Mobile Estates Partnership v. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development presents two alternatives: Some call it a groundbreaking victory for banks fighting unfair-lending charges; others say it is mainly just good news for trailer park owners. Page 4 REGIONAL BANKING: FEWER BIG COMPANIES plan to increase bank borrowings in the second half than had planned to do so in the first. The decline was suggested by a survey of chief financial officers' borrowing plans for the second half of 1995. Page 5 TECHNOLOGY: CATERING in part to continued demand from banks for mainframe computers, International Business Machines has developed a dozen new models for its next generation of large-scale equipment. Page 8 SMALL BUSINESS: MONEY STORE Investment Corp. has established a $150 million loan pool in the fastest-growing sector of the small-business market - companies owned by women. Page 11 MORTGAGES: IN RESPONSE to increased competition for home equity loans originated by mortgage brokers, Altegra Credit has switched gears and launched an aggressive campaign to build a retail network. The subsidiary of Integra Financial Corp. has already opened two retail branches. Page 16 THE TOP ORIGINATORS of loans to buy homes in the first quarter are a Who's Who of large California thrifts. A survey of the top purchase originators in the major metropolitan counties of 19 states showed they were mostly savings and loan associations, led by World Savings and Loan, Oakland, Calif. Page 17 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: SEAFIRST is hiring more brokers and rolling out a program of investment seminars for selected customers in an effort to expand investment product sales in its home state of Washington. Page 18 FIRST CHICAGO has joined a handful of banking companies that offer a special brokerage service, known as a wrap account, to diversify assets among a sampling of mutual funds. Page 18