BANKING & FINANCE - Jan. 4, 1995

Plaza Home Mortgage Sale Price Reduced: Plaza, the holding company for Plaza Home Mortgage Bank and the nation’s 23rd-largest mortgage lender, said it reduced the price that Fleet National Bank will have to pay to acquire the company. It is now an estimated $89 million, down from the $120 million on which the two companies had agreed in September. Though Plaza did not offer an explanation for the price reduction, analysts noted that it followed a bigger-than-expected third-quarter loss of $11.6 million, or 99 cents a share. Plaza, based in Santa Ana, closed at $7 a share, down $1 on the Nasdaq. Fleet, a subsidiary of Fleet Financial Group Inc. of Providence, R.I., closed at $32.50, up 12 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.