Also

* Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco and A.G. Edwards Inc. of St. Louis formed a joint venture to provide mortgages and home equity loans as banks look for new ways to generate home loans as higher interest rates slow home buying.

* Employees of Tyco International Ltd. when it was run by the executives convicted of fraud have won class-action status for their lawsuit charging deception by the conglomerate’s retirement savings plan.

* The Pan Am Liquidating Trust, which is all that remains of the defunct Pan American World Airways, will make a final $31-million payment to creditors by the end of the year, wrapping up a 15-year bankruptcy case.