Nationsbank

NationsBank Corp.'s earnings shot up 26 percent in the second quarter on strong loan growth and tight expense controls, the company said yesterday.The country's fourth largest banking company had net income of $762 million in the second quarter ended June 30, or $1.05 a share, compared with $605 million, or $1 a share, a year earlier."

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NationsBank Corp. agreed to buy Montgomery Securities yesterday for $1.2 billion in cash and stock, as the fourth-biggest U.S. bank acquired a leading adviser to fast-growing companies.NationsBank will pay 70 percent in cash and the rest in stock for Montgomery, last year's 10th-ranked stock underwriter. The companies decided to merge because "we were both in danger of losing customer flow," said James Hance Jr., vice chairman and chief financial officer at NationsBank.

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.

NationsBank Corp.'s net income jumped 20 percent in the first quarter of 1997 as income from loans and other products grew at a double-digit pace, the company said yesterday.The nation's fourth largest banking company reported net income of $709 million, or 97 cents a share, in the first quarter, compared with $590 million, or 98 cents a share, a year earlier, before a one-time merger-related charge in 1996."Our company is generating substantial cash flows, which enhance our ability to invest in technology, our business and future opportunities," said Hugh L. McColl Jr., chief executive of NationsBank, which has $239 billion in assets and is based in Charlotte, N.C.Including a one-time merger-related charge of $77 million in 1996, NationsBank earned $513 million, or 85 cents a share, in the first quarter a year earlier, the company said.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- NationsBank is the first bank to request new powers under an expanded regulation of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.The Charlotte bank's two applications last week will be the first test of a revised OCC rule that allows banks, on a case-by-case basis, to do things that previously were forbidden.Some bankers have speculated that the comptroller's office, which regulates national banks, eventually could approve applications by banks to underwrite insurance and securities.

NationsBank of Delaware is preparing to impose a $25 annual fee on Blockbuster Visa customers who pay off their credit card bills each month.The new fee is part of a growing trend in the credit card industry to penalize those customers who pay their bills promptly, in part because banks are making little, if any, money in serving them.Company officials said 6 percent of Blockbuster Visa customers -- those who carry no balances -- would be charged the fee. The officials declined to say how many Blockbuster Visa customers there are."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and NationsBank are offering a free Home Buyer Workshop from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. March 27 at Timothy Baptist Church, 1214 Saratoga St.Workshop topics include credit, how much house you can afford, applying for a mortgage and working with a real estate agent.To register call 410-602-9300.Pub Date: 3/16/97

A man with a handgun robbed a Severn man of an undisclosed amount of money Friday after the man withdrew cash from an automated teller machine in Glen Burnie, county police said.John M. Gerrish, 41, told police he was taking money from the ATM at the NationsBank branch in the 7200 block of Ritchie Highway about 8: 30 p.m. when a man approached him from behind, pulled out a dark gray and silver 9-mm semiautomatic handgun with wooden grips and demanded money.Gerrish handed the man his wallet, but the man said, "No, only the money," police said.

NationsBank Corp.'s board of directors approved a 2-for-1 stock split of the Charlotte-based company's common shares.The country's fourth largest banking company, with $227 billion in assets, said the stock distribution is payable Feb. 27 to shareholders of record Feb. 7."This stock split underscores the board's confidence that our strong performance will continue," Hugh L. McColl Jr., NationsBank's chief executive, said in a statement. "It also makes it more attractive for individual investors to purchase shares, and thus broaden the ownership base of the company."

NationsBank Corp., the rapidly growing mega-bank with operations in Baltimore, said yesterday that earnings rose 22 percent in 1996, backed by growth in consumer loans and investment banking services.NationsBank earned a record $2.375 billion in 1996, or $8 a share, compared with earnings of $1.950 billion, or $7.13 a share for all of 1995.Fourth quarter earnings jumped 24 percent to a record $632 million, or $2.19 a share, compared with $510 million, or $1.87 a share, for the same period the previous year.