BankAmerica Settlement Gets Tentative OK

BankAmerica said a federal court in San Francisco has given preliminary approval to a $19-million settlement of a dispute between the bank and trustees of three real estate partnerships. Charlotte, N.C.-based BankAmerica, the nation’s largest bank, said the settlement ends a four-year dispute with about 1,500 beneficiaries of the trusts that it inherited with its acquisition of Security Pacific National Bank in 1992. The bank closed the trusts between 1996 and 1998. Two lawsuits by the beneficiaries said the trusts were improper and risky and that BankAmerica should not have kept them open as long as it did. The partnerships were called Pacifica Village, Shaw 41 and Sunpointe Redmond. The settlement requires final court approval. Separately, BankAmerica said it agreed to buy that portion of credit-card-processing company BA Merchant Services Inc. that it doesn’t already own for about $333 million cash, or $20.50 a share. BankAmerica owns all of San Francisco-based BA Merchant’s Class B shares, representing 67% of its capital. BA Merchant was spun off from BankAmerica two years ago. BankAmerica’s stock fell 50 cents to close at $60.06, and BA Merchant’s shares rose $2.25 to finish at $13.81. Both trade on the NYSE.