Philip, 51, has been chief executive of Emigrant Savings, a large New York-based bank controlled by the family, for nearly a decade.

"Somebody wanted me to lower the prime a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't," said one banker involved in setting the prime at a New York-based bank.

Among New York-based banks that have contributed are the Chase Manhattan Bank and the Republic National Bank.

"The Fed is definitely concerned about the system," the chief financial officer for a New York-based multinational bank said yesterday.

The merger is also expected to slow the entry of New York-based banks into the lucrative New Jersey banking markets.

Analysts said they believed the Fed was concerned about the effect of an increase in loan reserves by any of the leading New York-based bank companies.

"We'd love to do it, but it would be viewed as a taxpayer bailout of the banks," said the head of international lending for a major New York-based bank.

The scandals that have rocked the New York-based banks that dominate much of London's financial scene have unsettled British rivals, analysts say.

The bill would restrict the opening of branches in New York to companies whose home states allow New York-based banks to open branches within their borders.

Andrews' architect's practice in York did not confine itself to railway work, its other buildings including headquarters for two York-based banks and a number of churches.