WASHINGTON
A Small Business Administration proposal would require banks selling the nonguaranteed portion of 7(a) loans to retain a percentage of the credit. Page 2
REGIONAL
BankAmerica shareholders at the annual meeting aired worries about the proposed merger with NationsBank, such as the difference in management styles. "You are going to see the same types of financial discipline ... that we have had in the past," said BankAmerica CEO David A. Coulter. Page 5
MONTHLY REPORT: MORTGAGE TECHNOLOGY
Fleet Mortgage Group has joined a growing number of institutions that are using systems to manage interest rate risk. Page 7
MORTGAGES
Since buying Great Western Financial last July, Washington Mutual has trumpeted its ambition to be California's leading mortgage lender. But Bank of America has remained firmly in the lead. Page 8
COMMUNITY
A Pennsylvania bank is opening a unit specifically to target the Philadelphia area's growing Asian population. Page 10
CARDS
Credit card fraud rates have dropped so low that some people are wondering if they are reaching a limit. Page 16
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
In a strategy it hopes will help jump-start sales of its proprietary mutual funds, Riggs National plans to have a broker-dealer up and running within three months. Page 19
DIGITAL FRONTIERS
ELECTRONIC COMMERCE: A two-year-old company, eCharge, is promoting an on-line payment method that it claims is simpler and more practical than some of the digital cash and credit card approaches on the Internet commerce market. Page 21
Verisign and Lotus said they are teaming up to offer banks and other multinational enterprises the strongest available form of data encryption. Page 21
TECHNOLOGY
The initial public offering of Carreker-Antinori raised the profile - and the war chest - of a company bent on transforming the nation's payment system from paper to electronics. Page 20
MARKET MONITOR
Investors searching for a fresh strategy for buying bank stocks may need to look no further than the familiar Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. Page 29
Federal Reserve monetary policy officials aren't due to meet again for five weeks, but investors have already resumed worrying about higher interest rates. Page 29
