Bankers Trust

NEW YORK -- The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to pursue civil charges against Bankers Trust New York Corp. in connection with its sale of derivatives to some corporate clients, sources familiar with the situation said.The SEC authorized an enforcement action against Bankers Trust after investigators convinced the agency's commissioners that a preliminary inquiry showed enough cause to purse civil charges that the bank violated securities laws, the people said.No charges have been filed against Bankers Trust.

A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, the former Baltimore investment banker who was replaced in a shake-up last week as the Central Intelligence Agency's No. 3 official, said yesterday that his professional future remains unclear. Krongard, who had been the agency's executive director since March 2001, will undergo back surgery this month and plans to make a decision on what he will do next after he recovers. "I have got to get through that first," said Krongard, 67, the former chairman and chief executive of Alex.

Regency Homes, Maryland's largest private homebuilder, recently received $14 million in capital from the Bankers Trust Funding Corp., an affiliate of Bankers Trust. The new funding gives Regency an equity of $4 million and a $10 million unsecured credit line from Bankers Trust, which recently announced the acquisition of Alex. Brown & Sons Inc."This new capital will allow Regency to continue on its fast-growth course," said Robert T. Kleinpaste, the company president. "We plan to use these new funds for acquiring other home-building companies and generating internal growth."

Alexander T. Mason will leave his post as vice chairman of Deutsche Bank's U.S. division to help Mercantile Bankshares Corp. map out a growth strategy, the Baltimore-based bank said yesterday. Mason, a 30-year banking veteran and former college classmate of Mercantile chief executive Edward J. Kelly, will join Mercantile as vice chairman but won't serve on the bank's board of directors. He joins a bank that has struggled with low interest rates and the complexity of managing its acquisition of Frederick-based F&M Bancorp, its largest ever.

In the first big government action against a seller of the financial instruments known as derivatives, the Federal Reserve Board said yesterday that it had reached a settlement with Bankers Trust Co. that requires the bank to increase the disclosure of risks its customers face.At the same time, two other federal agencies, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, are expected to reach a joint settlement against Bankers Trust in the next few weeks.

DAVID BOYD WAS fuming the day he read in The Sun that Alex. Brown Inc. had agreed to sell to Bankers Trust New York Corp.The retired Towson State University professor grumbled that the deal was just another example of the rich getting richer.He was so mad, he was going to sell some of his 475 shares of Alex. Brown and spend the money on a "super vacation."Now, he's having second thoughts.One reason: Bankers Trust pays a hefty $4 annual dividend -- more than five times what Alex. Brown pays a year.

NEW YORK -- Shares of Bankers Trust Corp., which acquired Alex. Brown a year ago, fell as much as 9 percent yesterday after Deutsche Bank AG Chief Executive Officer Rolf Breuer denied that Europe's second-largest bank was in discussions to purchase the seventh-biggest U.S. bank holding company.After falling as low as $61.5625, Bankers Trust closed at $62.875, down $4.Deutsche Bank is holding discussions with acquisition targets but has not held any talks with BT, Breuer said in an interview with weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel.

NEW YORK -- Bankers Trust New York Corp. yesterday said it's not in merger talks, after takeover speculation drove its stock up as much as 13 percent."

Three weeks after it announced its plans to acquire Baltimore-based Alex. Brown Inc., Bankers Trust New York Corp. signed a definitive agreement yesterday to buy NationsBank Corp.'s $133 billion-asset institutional trust business.The deal will increase Bankers Trust's global assets under custody to nearly $2 trillion. Bankers Trust will gain 465 institutional customers, including corporations, nonprofit organizations, public agencies and union pension plans.Terms of the transaction were not released.

NEW YORK -- Bankers Trust Corp. shareholders approved the company's $10.1 billion sale to Deutsche Bank AG yesterday, removing a hurdle to creation of the world's biggest financial-services company.The vote, at a special Bankers Trust shareholders' meeting, leaves approval by U.S. regulators as the last major barrier to the sale. The banks expect to complete the transaction by the end of the quarter, said Frank Newman, chairman of Bankers Trust.Deutsche Bank will pay $93 a share for Bankers Trust.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank and parent to the former Alex. Brown & Sons, said yesterday that it expects to post a first-quarter loss of $221 million because of stock market losses and write-offs related to its stakes in other companies. The Frankfurt-based bank said it will be taking net charges in the first quarter of about $800.15 million. Before taxes and partially offsetting gains, the charges were even higher: Deutsche Bank is writing down more than $440 million for securities it had up for sale, another $110 million on private-equity investments and $689.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank and the parent of the former Alex. Brown & Sons locally, announced an unexpected fourth-quarter loss yesterday, though its chief executive officer predicted a recovery this year. For the quarter that ended Dec. 31, Deutsche Bank reported a net loss equivalent to about $113 million. The loss was much less than the $1.08 billion loss posted for the comparable period of 2001, but it was far from the $217.8 million profit analysts had expected. Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann "is delivering the cost cuts, but that isn't enough to offset weak revenue," said Rolf Zartner, a money manager with Deka Investment GmbH in Frankfurt, and one of the bank's largest stockholders.

The trustees of the Alex. Brown & Sons Charitable Foundation are giving away half their $21 million in assets in a sudden spending spree, hoping the profits of the venerable investment house will live on in Baltimore institutions even as the Alex. Brown name recedes. The beneficiaries of $11 million in grants, seven of which are $1 million each, include museums, hospitals, universities and cultural institutions. In all, 34 organizations will receive more than $25,000 each. With Alex. Brown subsumed by two mergers in the past five years - its parent, Deutsche Bank AG, will formally cease using the Alex.

NEW YORK - Deutsche Bank AG lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that Chief Executive Officer Rolf-E. Breuer misled investors in a comment he made to a German reporter about a takeover of Bankers Trust Corp. The case centers on an interview Breuer gave to a reporter for the German news weekly Der Spiegel on Oct. 22, 1998, when he was asked, in German, whether Deutsche Bank had engaged in takeover talks with Bankers Trust, which then was the parent of Baltimore investment brokerage Alex.

Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and former Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Chairman Mayo Shattuck III are scheduled to be interviewed this weekend for the job of U.S. Olympic Committee chief executive. A search committee this week narrowed a list of contenders to six, including Schmoke and Shattuck, according to a source at the USOC. A third Baltimore man, prominent sports agent Ron Shapiro, took his name out of contention this week. The former mayor, now in private law practice, would not comment on reports.

A. B. "Buzzy" Krongard, the former chairman and chief executive of Alex. Brown Inc., was named executive director of the Central Intelligence Agency yesterday, the organization's third-highest ranking position. Krongard, who gave up a $4 million-a-year job plus bonus three years ago to become counselor to CIA Director George J. Tenet, will run the agency's day-to-day operations. "I couldn't be any happier. I am ecstatic," said Krongard, 64, who starts the job March 26. "It gives me a chance to contribute more, which is something I want to do because I so deeply believe in the mission of the agency."

NEW YORK -- Bankers Trust New York Corp.'s first-quarter earnings rose 22 percent, as revenue from securities trading, derivatives and other businesses surged, the company reported yesterday.The nation's seventh largest bank said first-quarter net income rose to $169 million, or $1.89 a share, from $138 million, or $1.52, in the same period last year.The results exceeded analysts' expectations of $1.84 a share, according to a survey of 12 analysts by IBES International Inc. Bankers Trust shares rose 38 cents to $75.38.

Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Inc. will move its over-the-counter trading division to New York this summer, a move that means all position trading will be done outside Baltimore, company officials said yesterday. About 35 OTC traders in the Baltimore office at One South Street will be offered jobs in New York. Several sales traders will remain here, and about 10 people were fired. It will not be the first such move to New York for the company. In 1999, Alex. Brown moved its division that trades stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange after its then-parent, Bankers Trust, was acquired by Deutsche Bank AG. "Traders like to be together, in sight of one another," Mayo A. Shattuck III, co-chairman and co-chief executive officer of Deutsche Banc Alex.

FRANKFURT, Germany - Deutsche Bank AG's third-quarter profit surged as last year's acquisition of Bankers Trust Corp. boosted investment-banking earnings. Europe's biggest bank said yesterday that its net income rose to 591 million euros ($504 million), or 0.90 euro a share, from 67 million euros, or 0.10 euro, in the third quarter last year when bonus payments and other costs related to the Bankers Trust purchase curbed earnings. Buying Bankers Trust helped elevate Deutsche Bank to fifth position from ninth among managers of global bond sales, according to Bloomberg data.