BANKING & FINANCE - Sept. 27, 1994

Banking Regulators Issue New Rules: The new regulations are the first top-to-bottom overhaul in 17 years of the rules requiring commercial banks and savings institutions to serve minorities and poor people. A Clinton Administration regulator said the new rules stressed performance over paperwork but at least one agency predicted more paperwork for many bankers. And activists complained that the government let bankers talk regulators into watering down an earlier version of the rules. The four agencies overseeing banks and savings institutions released the regulations for enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 for 45 days of public comment. If approved in final form, they would take full effect July 1, 1996.