BANKING & FINANCE - Nov. 26, 1994

Report Sees Problems With Pooling Business Loans: Pooling loans to small businesses and selling them as investments would present numerous problems, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency said in a staff report. Such loans are so diverse that it would be tough for banks to evaluate them as a category, OCC economists Christopher Beshouri and Peter Nigro said. The report may cool enthusiasm on Capitol Hill and elsewhere for the idea of syndicating small business debt to stimulate such lending. Such a market would be similar to the secondary mortgage market monitored by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. Spokesman Lee Cross said the comptroller’s office was taking no stand on the issue.