U S Bank

The number of big loans with problems that U.S. banks are holding has risen this year, as the ability of manufacturers, particularly in the automotive industry, to repay loans weakened, banking regulators said Monday. Adversely rated credits -- loans that are likely to result in some loss for the lender without corrective action -- rose to 5.1% of all credits from 4.8% a year earlier, regulatory agencies said.

ON his first day in London, Frank Conlon went to an ATM to withdraw some British pounds. Conlon, a frequent visitor to England, is accustomed to withdrawing cash from machines without incident. But on his trip in February, things didn't go as usual. Instead of spitting out pounds, the machine flashed a message that his bank was refusing this request. Figuring something was wrong with that ATM, he went to another and encountered the same problem.

European Union officials are seeking an investigation of the U.S. government's program for monitoring international banking data, with the most pressing questions aimed at figuring out how much European governments and institutions knew about the secret operation. Lawmakers of the European Parliament, meeting this week in Strasbourg, France, demanded that the European Central Bank and similar institutions in the 25-nation bloc reveal the level of their cooperation in or knowledge of the U.S.

Regions Financial Corp. said Thursday that it had agreed to acquire rival Alabama-based bank AmSouth Bancorp for nearly $10 billion, creating a top-10 U.S. bank that can better compete with bigger, national players. The deal is the latest in a string of regional bank deals in the United States, with more expected as lenders seek ways to cut costs as they face thinner profit margins amid rising interest rates and a slowdown in mortgage business.

Working in the West Coast's tallest building has its share of thrills -- those gut-grabbing high-speed elevator rides, the windows rattled by Santa Ana winds during business meetings and the drop-dead gorgeous sunset views that wrap around the horizon. So in the 72-floor U.S. Bank Tower in downtown Los Angeles, workers were taking the details President Bush offered Thursday about a previously reported foiled terrorist attack, perhaps on their building, with a stiff upper lip.

New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer is seeking dismissal of a case brought by a banking regulator, saying it attempts to strip states of their power to probe mortgage lending practices at national banks. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, sued Spitzer's office for seeking mortgage data from nationally chartered institutions. The agency and several banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co.

It was high noon at Baghdad's international airport and the Money Man was waiting for a shipment of cash -- 1.85 trillion Iraqi dinars, to be exact. The fresh dough, equivalent to about $126 million, was scheduled to arrive from the printer in England within the hour. It was the Money Man's job to ensure that all 750 crates got loaded into three tractor-trailer rigs and trucked across some of Baghdad's most dangerous roads to the Iraqi Central Bank.

Bank of America Corp., the nation's No. 2 bank, said Monday that it planned to cut 12,500 jobs over the next two years as a result of its $48-billion purchase of FleetBoston Financial Corp. The cuts amount to about 7% of the combined banks' workforce of more than 180,000. Bank of America said about 30% of the cuts would be through attrition.

Al Qaeda had planned to attack Los Angeles' tallest building in the months after Sept. 11 as part of a second wave of strikes that was never carried out, according to a statement by an alleged terrorist that was passed on to the Los Angeles Police Department. "We were made aware of that information last spring," said John Miller, the LAPD's top anti-terrorism official.