The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 19, 1994                 TAG: 9407190331
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   46 lines

NATIONSBANK: COMPANY REPORTS 43 PERCENT JUMP IN 2ND QUARTER

NationsBank Corp. reported a robust 43 percent jump in second-quarter earnings Monday.

The Charlotte-based bank holding company said it earned $437 million for the three months ended June 30, compared with $306 million in the year-earlier quarter.

The bank attributed the improvements to net interest income and other revenue sources, management of expenses and improvements in the quality of its assets.

Per share earnings, when fully diluted for debt convertible to shares, were $1.57, up 32 percent from $1.19 in the second quarter of 1993.

NationsBank had an average of 275.02 million common shares outstanding during the recent quarter.

The biggest source of NationsBank's earnings, its net interest income, rose 18 percent, while income from fees and other noninterest sources was up 31 percent.

``Fees from trust management, deposits, mortgage servicing and bank card (operations) were primary contributors to this growth,'' the reportsaid.

The company, parent of Virginia's biggest commercial bank, had average loans and leases of $92.61 billion during the April-through-June quarter, a 23 percent increase from $75.32 billion for the year-earlier period.

NationsBank's earnings also were helped by a smaller provision for loan losses, which dropped to $70 million from $110 million in the year-earlier quarter. The company attributed an improvement in its asset quality to a stronger economy and an upturn in the commercial real estate market.

NationsBank's nonperforming assets at the end of June amounted to $1.42 billion, down 16 percent from the year-earlier total of $1.68 billion.

The company's return on average assets, a widely used measure of banking profitability, was 1.08 percent for the recent quarter, up slightly from 1 percent for the year-earlier quarter.

For the six months through June 30, NationsBank reported net income of $854 million, a 9 percent increase from $787 million. Per-share earnings, fully diluted, were $3.07, compared with $3.05 for the first half of 1993. by CNB