Banks and brokerages are also looking for revenues from online, Internet-based financial services. But six years later, Wells claims to have become the first major U.S. bank to give customers access to their accounts via the Web rather than a cumbersome phone link. Plans are also afoot to give customers access via WebTV and to link ''smart cards'' with Internet banking. As the institution that essentially introduced technology to banking, Citibank looms large in Web banking. Horowitz, a former senior vice-president for technology at Viacom Inc., joined Citi in January as head of global technology.
Bankers yearn to supply every slice of a deal's capital, from equity to junk to bank loans.
The banking industry was supposed to be dying,'' says Middle Tennessee's Ford. Although it lags behind Chase and Wall Street firms in corporate finance, NationsBank, which will become the third-largest U.S. bank early next year when it completes its merger with Barnett Banks, is also coming on strong. On Oct. 1, it completed its acquisition of San Francisco-based Montgomery Securities. Back in May, it opened an office in Brazil and helped finance the privatization of a big government-controlled mining company, taking a stake in the deal. The man behind this flurry of activity is global corporate-finance chief Edward J. Brown III, 49.