Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090080
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - The nation's healthy banks could save up to $4.4 billion annually in premiums for deposit insurance under a drastically reduced rate structure approved Tuesday.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. board of directors, by a 4-0 vote, agreed to slash premiums banks pay into the insurance fund, a reduction that could go into effect as early as September.
The FDIC manages the fund that insures deposits in member banks for up to $100,000 per account in the event the bank fails. The fund encountered perilous times in the early 1990s as plunging real estate prices led to thousands of bank failures.
Banks have since rebounded, and the fund is healthy enough that the FDIC said it can cut the premiums for healthy banks from 23 cents per $100 of deposits to 4 cents per $100 of deposits. About 92 percent of the nation's banks will pay the lower rate.
The weakest banks will continue to pay 31 cents per $100 of deposits, a premium aimed at encouraging management to improve balance sheets in order to cut the insurance costs.
- Associated Press
Va. Power trims managers
RICHMOND - Virginia Power will lay off 17 managers and move others to new positions as part of a restructuring that will decrease its management force by 20 percent.
The Richmond-based utility told employees that 29 jobs will be eliminated by September. Besides layoffs, the company will shift other workers to new jobs and leave vacancies unfilled to achieve the cuts.
Some of the managers run power plants and district offices that directly serve utility customers.
The changes are part of Virginia Power's strategy, called Vision 2000, to prepare the company for competition in the electricity business, but most of the cutbacks will come in the heart of the utility's operations.
Before the company began carrying out the strategy this year, it employed about 130 managers.
Virginia Power has identified almost 350 jobs to be eliminated this year as part of the corporate restructuring.
In Western Virginia, the company provides electricity in portions of Alleghany, Bath, Bedford, Botetourt and Rockbridge counties.
- Associated Press
Memo: NOTE: Shorter version of second story ran in Metro edition.