Today's News

COMMUNITY BANKING

Lockport Savings, a 147-year-old mutual thrift based in New York, is adopting a two-tier mutual holding company structure. Page 5

CORPORATE FINANCE

Royal Bank, Canada's largest, is throwing its hat into the U.S. leveraged finance ring. Page 10

CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs

The Smart Card Forum elected a Bellcore executive as its third president. Page 14

TECHNOLOGY

First USA Paymentech shares took a beating last week, amid rising concerns over the payment processor's future. Page 17

KPMG Peat Marwick and the software company Pointcast said they will offer a banking and financial news service to industry professionals over the Internet. Page 18

WASHINGTON

A routine National Credit Union Administration board meeting turned into a nearly four-hour brawl last week. It culminated with Chairman Norman E. D'Amours storming out of the room while his colleagues continued the meeting, refusing to heed his call for a recess. Page 2

MORTGAGES

The practice of labeling loans as A, B, and C will disappear as lenders sharpen their underwriting skills and become better at pricing, a top mortgage executive says. Page 11

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

A vice president in Fidelity Investments' institutional services group jumped to the unit that manages assets for Aetna and institutional customers. Page 8

U.S. Trust has eliminated five proprietary "theme funds," rolling their assets into a portfolio it renamed the Excelsior Blended Equity Fund. Page 8

MARKET MONITOR

Onbancorp, the upstate New York banking company, continues to press a nearly year-old lawsuit against a shareholder who lampooned the board with an unflattering cartoon. Page 25

The economy is expected to slow next year. How much and why are the unanswered questions. Page 25

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