First Interstate Buys 80% of Texas Consulting Firm

First Interstate Bancorp said Thursday that it has entered the field of human resource management by acquiring 80% of a small consulting firm in Texas.

First Interstate, based in Los Angeles, paid $70,000 for majority ownership of Dickinson-Roop of Bryan, Tex., a 4-year-old firm that, among other things, uses computers to measure productivity, develop compensation policies and match people to jobs, a company spokesman said.

Dickinson-Roop is being renamed First Interstate Resources Management and will operate as a subsidiary of First Interstate Bank Ltd., one of First Interstate Bancorp’s 22 wholly owned banks in 11 Western states.

First Interstate Resources Management will market its systems to other financial services firms and to the insurance industry, said Stephen S. Roop, the former Texas A&M; researcher who founded the company with fellow researcher Richard W. Dickinson.

Both will remain as officers of the subsidiary and will own the remaining 20%.

First Interstate owns another small consulting firm, Results Consulting of Atlanta, that does financial productivity consulting for banks and savings and loans, a company spokesman said.