Wachovia unit halts Alt-A home loans

(Reuters) - Wachovia stopped making Alt-A loans through all brokers on Thursday, the spokesman said. Wells Fargo & Co. has said it is also curtailing such loans.



Alt-A loans, short for "Alternative-A," fall between prime and subprime in quality. Investors have shied away from the loans on concern about rising defaults, and that credit issues affecting riskier "subprime" loans would spread to higher-quality loans.


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Citigroup, Wachovia profits top forecasts

(Reuters) - Profit rose 18 percent at Citigroup, the largest U.S. bank,
and 24 percent at Wachovia, the fourth largest.




Shares of both companies fell, however, as investors
worried that banks would get stuck with more soured consumer
loans or riskier corporate debt on their balance sheets.


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UPDATE 1- Quest Energy Partners files for IPO

(Reuters) - The offering represents about 37 percent equity interest in
Quest Energy Partners.




A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., Wachovia Capital Markets LLC and
RBC Capital Markets Corp. will act as joint lead book-running
managers for the transaction, with Friedman Billings Ramsey &
Co. Inc. acting as a co-manager.


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Wachovia CEO optimistic despite mortgage slump

(Reuters) - Wachovia, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, acquired Golden
West last October in a deal valued at $24.2 billion.




Golden West was almost entirely an adjustable rate mortgage
lender, and the market for those loans has suffered in the
slump for subprime loans.


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Abbott seen seeking new buyer for diagnostics unit

(Reuters) - "Although Abbott indicated they will manage the diagnostics business for the long-term, we believe there were other bidders leading up to the time of the original agreement with GE and these bidders may re-emerge," Wachovia analyst Larry Biegelsen wrote in a research note.




JP Morgan analyst Mike Weinstein said he wouldn't expect a bid by private equity or a strategic buyer in the short term, although he wouldn't rule one out later.


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Ex-North Fork CEO Kanas steps down at Capital One

(Reuters) - Lynn Pike, the chief operating officer for banking, will
replace Kanas as bank president. Separately, Wachovia Corp.'s
Michael Slocum will become executive vice president of
commercial banking, replacing commercial banking head John
Bohlsen. Kanas and Bohlsen will remain advisers through 2009.




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Dollar General sells $1.9 bln in 2 parts - source

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Global Markets, Lehman Brothers
and Wachovia Securities were the joint lead managers of the
sale.




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UPDATE 1-Wachovia fined by NASD for charging excessive fees

(Reuters) - NEW YORK, June 21 - The NASD said on Thursday it
fined Wachovia Securities LLC $2 million and ordered it to pay
restitution to more than 1,300 customers for what it said were
excessive fees in fee-based brokerage accounts.




The regulator said Wachovia Securities charged
inappropriate fees to several hundred customers for maintaining
accounts, even though they did not conduct any trades. It also
said several hundred customers who bought Class A mutual fund
shares were charged duplicative account fees despite paying
sales charges. The violations took place from 2001 to 2004, the
NASD said.


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U.S. Stock-Index Futures Gain as Treasury Yields Decline; Merrill Gains

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures gained
after the yield on the 10-year Treasury bond retreated from a
five-year high and mortgage applications unexpectedly jumped.

Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's biggest brokerage, and
Wachovia Corp., the fourth-biggest U.S. bank, gained in trading
in Europe.


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Cingular launches mobile banking with U.S. banks

(Reuters) - AT&T said customers could download the software from privately held Firethorn Holdings LLC onto their phones.

Along with Wachovia, U.S. banks such as BancorpSouth Inc. , Regions Financial Corp. and SunTrust Banks Inc. are offering mobile banking to AT&T customers.


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