Banco Santander OK's CEO appointment at Sovereign

Spain's Banco Santander will follow through on Sovereign Bancorp's planned appointment of Paul A. Perrault as chief executive, Sovereign told employees in an e-mail. Sovereign, the third-largest bank in Massachusetts, with 232 branches, replaced CEO Joseph Campanelli on Sept. 30 with Perrault, former head of Chittenden Corp., who is scheduled to start work in January. On Monday, Santander said it would purchase the 75 percent of Sovereign it didn't already own in a $1.9 billion stock deal. Yesterday, neither Santander nor Sovereign executives would discuss layoffs. In an analyst presentation yesterday, Santander mentioned initiatives to improve efficiency, such as "headquarters and operations optimization," and said it "has a proven track record in reducing costs in cross-border acquisitions." Sovereign has 11,776 employees, including 3,383 in Massachusetts. (Ross Kerber)

Caritas Christi Health Care, the six-hospital chain owned by the Archdiocese of Boston, disclosed the appointment of Margaret Hanson as president of its hospital in Norwood. Hanson, who previously was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the two-hospital Cape Cod Healthcare system, will succeed Dr. John B. Chessare, "who has decided to pursue other opportunities," Caritas Christi said. (Chris Reidy)

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in auction, with rates on three-month bills rising to the highest level in three weeks. The Treasury Department auctioned $25 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.500 percent, up from 0.460 percent last week and the highest since these bills averaged 1.100 percent on Sept. 29. Another $27 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 1.100 percent, unchanged from last week. The discount rates reflect the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,987.36, while a six-month bill sold for $9,944.39. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.508 percent for the three-month bills and 1.122 percent for the six-month bills. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, fell to 1.24 percent last week from 1.59 percent the previous week. (AP)

Discover Financial Services, the fourth-biggest US credit-card company, settled an antitrust suit in which it sought $18 billion from larger rivals Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. for blocking banks from issuing its cards. The accord came as trial was to begin yesterday in federal court in Manhattan. While terms weren't disclosed, UBS AG analyst Adam Frisch in New York wrote "industry sources" said the case settled for $2.8 billion, of which $1 billion will go to former Discover parent Morgan Stanley. MasterCard will pay $900 million and Visa $1.9 billion, Frisch said in a client note. (Bloomberg)

Genentech Inc. said a patient taking its drug for chronic psoriasis, Raptiva, died after developing a rare brain infection. Genentech alerted doctors Oct. 2 that the patient had contracted the infection, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. The man, 70, who had taken the psoriasis drug for four years, had no health factors known to be associated with PML. Genentech said it would work with the Food and Drug Administration "to evaluate the risks and benefits of Raptiva to determine next steps." (Bloomberg)

With the price of jet fuel falling, major airlines are reducing some of the fuel surcharges that they tack on flights between the United States and Europe, according to carriers and experts who track airfares. When base fares and other tariffs are added, the reduced surcharges can trim up to 18 percent from the cost of a ticket to Europe, said Tom Parsons, chief executive of the discount travel site Bestfares.com. However, the surcharges on some routes have remained unchanged, and the cuts don't apply to every ticket sold on every flight. A spokesman for AMR Corp.'s American Airlines said American has matched some fuel-surcharge reductions started by other carriers on international routes. A spokeswoman for UAL Corp.'s United Airlines said the same thing. Officials for Delta Air Lines Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp., and Continental Airlines Inc. either weren't familiar with the surcharge reductions or didn't respond to requests for comment. (AP)