BANKING & FINANCE - Feb. 25, 1992

First Interstate Selling Some Operations: The Los Angeles bank disclosed it is selling a sizable chunk of its merchant banking business to London-based Standard Chartered. Affected are the international, corporate finance and global trading businesses managed by First Interstate Bank Ltd. Details were not disclosed, although a spokesman said those operations affect about 700 people, more than one-third of the merchant bank’s total employees. First Interstate said the sale is part of an ongoing restructuring that is putting more emphasis on its banking operations in the western United States.