Today's News

REGIONAL BANKING: A TRIO of major southeastern banks - First Union, Barnett, and Wachovia - reported strong second-quarter earnings, aided by good loan growth, improved fee income, and stable net interest margins. Page 4 STRONGER LOAN demand and a shift toward higher-yielding assets drove second-quarter earnings 28% higher at Bank of New York, to $226 million, but extraordinary gains in the same period last year caused a 10% decline at J.P. Morgan & Co., to $315 million. Page 5 WASHINGTON: THE WHITE HOUSE said it intends to nominate Joseph H. Neely, Mississippi's banking commissioner since 1992, to fill the last open spot on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board. Page 2 IF EVER there was a believer in the old-time virtues of mutual savings and loans, it was Terry Neifeld. But as president and managing officer of Maryland's Cowenton Federal Savings and Loan Association, Mr. Neifeld in June led the first voluntary dissolution of a federally chartered mutual thrift since the 1930s. Page 3 COMMUNITY BANKING: ASSET-LIABILITY management software usage is expected to explode at small banks in the next decade. That's an innovation in a part of the industry where chief financial officers, in the modern sense, were rare just 15 years ago. Page 6 CENTERBANK of Connecticut ended weeks of speculation by agreeing to buy neighboring Great Country Bank, which had missed two regulatory capital deadlines, for up to $28 million. Page 7 MORTGAGES: WHOLESALE home lenders are falling by the wayside at an alarming rate. The number of wholesalers that fund mortgage brokers at a loan's closing declined 14% last year, to 89, according to consultant Wholesale Access. And the number of closed-loan buyers fell 23% in 1994, to 57. Page 9 INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: AT 28, ERIC RUBIN is a boy wonder of his profession. Newly appointed a managing director of Furman Selz, he is taking on the challenge of marketing First Interstate's proprietary funds as the program is in transition. Page 10 KICKING OFF a five-year mission to more than quadruple its mutual fund family's size, Provident Bancorp. has signed an agreement to acquire a tiny fund company, Mathematical Investment Management. Page 11 TECHNOLOGY: A PRIVATE DETECTIVE specializing in legal and financial cases, Jim Mintz' job is to stake out the information superhighway, probing for data that individuals and corporations may not want to reveal to their bankers. Page 14