DIGEST
General Electric Capital will give refunds totaling at least $60 million to Montgomery Ward customers who were illegally targeted to repay their credit card debts even though they had filed for bankruptcy protection, the Federal Trade Commission said. Along with the FTC agreement, GE Capital settled a class action lawsuit and entered a consent judgment with attorneys general for all 50 states.</br></br>Consumer credit rose by $6.7 billion in June to $1.256 trillion as auto loans advanced and credit-card borrowing staged a rebound, Federal Reserve figures showed. Analysts had expected an increase of $3.5 billion for June. The gain was the biggest since a $7.5 billion increase in March. Economists watch the Fed's consumer credit statistics because it helps them gauge changes in consumer spending.</br></br>A jury in Los Angeles awarded $760.6 million in punitive damages to 38 former employees who claimed they were harmed by toxic chemicals while building the stealth fighter for Lockheed Martin. The judgment against Exxon, Unocal, Ashland, Shell Oil and DuPont, but not Lockheed, follows a compensatory damages verdict last week in which the workers won $25.4 million.</br></br>Blacks, Hispanics and American Indians are being turned down for home mortgage loans more often than whites at every income level, according to a survey of 7,925 banks, thrifts and credit unions by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said he and Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass.) will request a Justice Department investigation of bank lending practices. Kennedy and other lawmakers also asked top banking regulators to overhaul their rating system for banks under community-lending laws.</br></br>Two major airlines confirmed they are increasing fares by 4 percent on selected non-business flights. Delta Air Lines said the rate increase will apply to many, but not all, of its leisure tickets. Continental Airlines said it would match the fare increase in all of its domestic markets. Airline analysts said AMR Corp., owner of American Airlines, and American Eagle, also raised prices 4 percent, but company officials were not immediately available to confirm or deny it.