WASHINGTON
Credit union executives are becoming increasingly concerned that the NCUA is casting a harmful shadow on their industry. Page 2
A longtime critic of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's FHA program released a study that shows that FHA mortgages default at higher rates in aging urban neighborhoods. Page 2
REGIONAL BANKING
The Chicago market is jam-packed with banks, so it's hard for anyone to grab market share, let alone an outsider company. This difficulty explains why Michael Johnstone, chief executive of TCF National Bank Illinois, can be heard greeting Lithuanian-Americans in their mother tongue in a cable-TV commercial targeting them. Page 4
BankBoston is trying to reinvent its consumer image, launching an 18- month reengineering program for its domestic bank unit. Page 5
COMMUNITY BANKING
As the agriculture industry consolidates, community bankers are being forced to find ways to make, or arrange for, the larger loans larger borrowers require. Page 6
A state-chartered Texas thrift that triggered a lawsuit when it branched into a wealthy Chicago suburb has found operating there too costly and is trying to sell the branch. Page 6
CORPORATE FINANCE
Fleet is gearing up to ask the Federal Reserve for corporate debt and equity powers, rounding out the menu of corporate finance products and services it has been building for the past year and a half. Page 7
MORTGAGES
The controversial high-loan-to-value mortgage is gradually gaining acceptance with lenders and Wall Street, and its proponents promise that it's here to stay. Page 8
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CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs
CARD FRONTIERS: Verifone said it has won the race to begin full-scale shipping of products that incorporate the MasterCard-Visa Secure Electronic Transaction protocol for Internet payments. Page 12
Compuserve Network Services has turned to International Business Machines for Internet payment assistance. Page 13
TECHNOLOGY
A Northern Telecom spinoff claims a head start in the network security race. Entrust Technologies says no other company has so broad a menu of products. Page 14
MARKET MONITOR
Bank stock prices will have to fall farther than they did Monday before they start to threaten pending mergers, industry experts say. Back page