IN BUSINESS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992                   TAG: 9202200418
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
IN BUSINESS
GAO: Va. regulators goofed with insurer WASHINGTON - Virginia regulators were inattentive during a spectacular rise in assets at a Richmond-based insurance company and did not act swiftly when the firm's money troubles mounted last year, the General Accounting Office found.
Regulators were aware of financial problems at Fidelity Bankers Life Insurance Co. but did not step in until nervous policyholders cashed in their policies en masse, the GAO said Tuesday.
Findings of the 10-month GAO probe into the failure of four insurers were released at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. Virginia authorities seized Fidelity Bankers in May to stop the surge of policyholders trying to cash in their holdings.
"GAO or anybody else can second-guess," said Virginia Insurance Commissioner Steven T. Foster. "I think we acted at the proper time."
Fidelity Bankers and the other three failed insurers all posted record growth in the 1980s, fueled in part by heavy investment in high-yield junk bonds. - Associated Press

Apco test system cited in newsletter
An energy management system being tested by Appalachian Power Co.'s Roanoke-area customers was selected by a utility industry newsletter as last year's most significant contribution toward energy conservation.
About 170 Roanoke-area customers and others at other American Electric Power Co. utilities in the Midwest are in a pilot project designed to find out if they will alter their use of electricity to get lower rates. A special rate structure identifies the least costly time of day to use electricity.
The recognition came from Distributive Automation/Demand Side Management Monitor, a newsletter in the world utility industry.
In the Transtext Advanced Energy Management System, the customers are using a thermostat, a house controller, appliance relays, a modem and a remotely read meter. Electric bills of customers in these test markets "have been consistently lower over the past year," said Richard Disbrow, chairman of Apco's parent, American Electric Power Co. - Staff report

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB