Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 10, 1993 TAG: 9304100110
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
IN BUSINESS FIRST UNION CORP. UNDER INVESTIGATION
First Union Corp. under investigationBank regulators are investigating First Union Corp. to determine if the Charlotte, N.C., banking company violated laws by linking the granting of credit to a customer's willingness to obtain underwriting business. It is illegal for banks to condition the issuance of credit on customers' purchase of other bank services; the practice is called tying.
First Union, parent of Roanoke-based First Union National Bank of Virginia, confirmed Friday the Comptroller of the Currency will study the company. But First Union spokesman Jeep Bryant said he is "not aware of any transactions that have been tied. . . . We are in compliance with the regulations."
Bryant said the bank responded to a general inquiry from the office of the Comptroller of the Currency in December but has heard nothing since. The comptroller's office had no comment on the report, which appeared in the Bond Buyer, a trade paper, according to a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal.
The comptroller's office has looked for evidence of tying at a handful of U.S. banks, the newspaper said. It said the comptroller began looking at First Union as the result of information provided by the Securities Industry Association, which surveyed its 600 members in November in a search for bank-tying violations. - Staff report
Defense-cut hearing scheduled
Roanoke-area businesses that are adversely affected by cuts in federal defense spending will have a chance to speak at a hearing of a subcommittee of the Governor's Commission on Defense Conversion and Economic Development.
The hearing will begin at 8:30 a.m. April 19 on the mezzanine of the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium.
The commission is seeking information on specific problems and suggested actions to alleviate them, said John Stroud, president of Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. The Blue Ridge Small Business Development Center, a program of the regional chamber, is sponsoring the event. - Staff report
GM spurns federal truck-recall request
WASHINGTON - General Motors Corp. rejected a federal request Friday that it recall and fix the fuel tanks in 4.7 million older pickup trucks, setting up a confrontation that risks both the public image of the world's largest automaker and the ability of the government to regulate auto safety.
The federal recall request alleges that the vehicles' side-mounted gas tanks are more likely than those of other designs to result in fires and deaths in side collisions.
GM blamed the government request in part on "rhetoric and disinformation" from lawyers involved in suits against the automaker. GM also said the government can't say there is a defect in a vehicle that met federal safety standards - a fact GM has long claimed for the 1973-87 pickups at issue.
If GM continues to fight, the government can order a recall; GM then can challenge that order in court. It is the only company that has beaten a U.S. recall order in court. - Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Briefly . . .
Jeffrey W. Garst, doing business as Garst Auction Service of Blacksburg, has petitioned the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke for protection from creditors while liquidating the business. He estimated his debt at less than $500,000 and assets at less than $50,000, according to papers filed in the court.
\ Martin Brothers Contractors of Roanoke has won a contract for expansion and renovation of First Virginia Bank's Southwest operations center on Coulter Drive Northwest. The $640,000 project is to be completed in early fall. Dickson Architects & Associates is designer.
Martin Brothers also won a contract from Whitescarver-Rodes & Associates Inc. for an addition and alterations to its office on Frontage Road Northwest, to be completed by early summer.
\ Reynolds Aluminum Recycling Co. has opened two more centers in the Roanoke Valley to buy recyclable aluminum products. The centers are at Oak Grove Plaza on Virginia 419 and at Happy's Flea Market at 5411 Williamson Road. The Richmond company now operates five recycling centers in the valley.
\ U.S. stock, commodities and Treasury bond markets were closed Friday for the Good Friday holiday. Financial tables in today's Roanoke Times & World-News are weekly summaries of trading through Thursday.