BANKING/FINANCE

Suits streamlined: Bilby, meantime, is getting ready for a March 2 civil trial by streamlining the lawsuits filed by American Continental bondholders and the federal government.

He granted a motion Tuesday to separate the Resolution Trust Corp.’s $2.7-billion fraud and racketeering case from the claims of the securities holders. The bondholders, who lost more than $250 million in the nation’s biggest thrift failure, will go to trial first against a host of defendants--headed mainly by major accounting firms and law firms that Keating had hired.

The RTC, which manages failed thrifts, originally had filed claims similar to the bondholder claims. But as various defendants in the complex litigation settled, little in common remained between the agency and the other plaintiffs.