Investment fund helps avoid tax
BofA, other banks transferred billions to such accounts
Bank of America Corp. and other large banks avoided state taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars by setting up investment funds that didn't offer shares to the public, but instead paid tax-exempt dividends back to the banks, according to a newspaper report.
( Associated Press, 08/08/2003 07:18 AM EDT)

Report: BofA kept millions from taxes
10 large banks used funds to avoid state taxes
At least 10 large banks avoided state taxes on hundreds of millions of dollars by setting up investment funds that didn't offer shares to the public, but instead paid tax-exempt dividends back to the banks, according to a newspaper report.
( Associated Press, 08/07/2003 09:58 AM EDT)

DEVELOPMENT
Wachovia to vacate building
Wachovia Corp. plans to vacate the uptown building that touched off the skyscraper race among the big banks nearly 50 years ago.
( DOUG SMITH, 08/07/2003 06:57 AM EDT)

General Electric Co. to buy lending unit
$1 billion purchase follows company's strategy for annual profit growth
General Electric Co., the world's largest non-bank financial company, agreed to buy most of Aegon NV's Transamerica Finance unit for $1 billion in cash to expand its business of leasing equipment and lending money to manufacturers and retailers.
( DOROTHY HILLENIUS, Bloomberg News, 08/06/2003 07:01 AM EDT)

Lenders may prey on mill workers
Predatory practices feared as woe deepens
Officials are warning former Pillowtex workers to watch out for lenders who try to take unfair advantage of them.
( RONNIE GLASSBERG, Staff Writer, 08/06/2003 06:34 AM EDT)

Magner to Head Citigroup Consumer Group
Citigroup on Wednesday named Marjorie Magner as chairman and chief executive of the bank's global consumer group, which handles its retail banking, consumer finance and credit card operations.
( Associated Press, 08/06/2003 10:54 AM EDT)

Banker gives $2.5 million to Georgia State school
Nursing school renamed for Bank of America CEO Lewis' mother, a retired registered nurse
Bank of America Corp. Chairman Ken Lewis has made his biggest-ever charitable contribution, giving $2.5 million to his alma mater's nursing school.
( RICK ROTHACKER, Staff Writer, 08/05/2003 06:57 AM EDT)

Unregulated ATM industry vulnerable to electronic fraud
Growing network of machines allowed group to siphon $3.5 million
He dealt in stolen jewelry, committed bank and credit card fraud and had been accused of having links to an Albanian-Yugoslavian criminal gang. Cloaking himself in nine aliases and Armani jackets, he was a smooth, multilingual master of the con, investigators and people who knew him say.
( WALT BOGDANICH, New York Times, 08/03/2003 07:18 AM EDT)