Today's News

WASHINGTON

The Treasury is backing off a controversial plan to combat money laundering. Page 2

Increasing fees charged to poorly rated national banks could unfairly punish institutions hurt by an economic downturn, two banking trade groups told the government. Page 3

REGIONAL BANKING

BankBoston Corp. is closing more branches and has set closings of private banking offices too. Page 4

TECHNOLOGY

For Online Resources and Communications, 1998 could prove to be a defining year. Page 7

Insurers, mortgage lenders, and the credit card industry spent $493 million worldwide on anti-fraud technology last year, according to a survey. Page 7

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS

KeyCorp plans to tweak its mutual fund wrap account linked to popular OneSource fund mart. Page 11

NationsBank put the former president of Boatmen's Trust in charge of all investment management activities. Page 11

CREDIT/DEBIT/ATMs

"Sydney prefers Visa" is the slogan, but the mayor and lord mayor and city council would prefer that the card association drop it. Page 12

The senior Visa executive who oversaw chip card strategy has gone to Motorala as manager of a smart card technology division. Page 13

CORPORATE FINANCE

Lehman Brothers is syndicating a $455 million loan package to finance a merger in the sugar industry. Page 14

MORTGAGES

Cary Thompson has proved to be more than an auctioneer as chief executive officer at Aames Financial. Analysts now credit him with engineering a complete turnaround. The ultimate goal may still be a sale, but they see a more attractive company on the auction block. Page 15

MARKET MONITOR

Citicorp shares dipped after a prominent market watcher turned more pessimistic about the bank's exposure to foreign markets. Back page