By Associated Press
Mobile, AL – U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions and his wife are selling some of their stock holdings following a newspaper report that he was pushing legislation that could benefit two banks in which the couple owned shares.
Sessions said in a Friday interview that the process is ''probably 80 percent'' complete. He declined to be specific about their future plans for the money. But he says that at least some of the proceeds could be reinvested in mutual funds.
Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Sessions had championed an amendment that would allow banks to avoid paying royalties on a technology that converts paper checks into electronic images.
The paper reported that Birmingham-based Compass Bancshares Inc. and Citigroup Inc., headquartered in New York, were among the potential gainers. Sessions and his wife owned stock in both companies.
Session's spokesman Stephen Boyd said the couple has sold all of their Citigroup shares and as much of their Compass holdings as possible. Compass is currently involved in a merger with a Spanish bank.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)