	cont l illinois sees months of brazil debt talks continental illinois corp s cil chairman john swearingen said he sees negotiations to reschedule brazil s debt payments taking at least three to six months brazil declared last month a moratorium on payment of interest on its medium and long term debts the moratorium is expected to persist the entire time that debt scheduling talks are under way i believe it will take three to six months maybe longer for an arrangement to be worked out to reschedule brazil s debt swearingen told reporters at a press briefing i think brazil will pay its debts in the long run just how long the run is is anybody s guess swearingen said earlier the bank holding company said brazil s moritorium may force it to increase non performing loans by mln dlrs and reduce pretax and net income by mln dlrs in the first quarter and mln dlrs for the full year the bank will decide march whether to characterize these loans as non performing william ogden chairman of the continental illinois national bank and trust co of chicago continental s largest subsidiary said in response to an inquiry ogden said the moratoriums will affect both pretax and net income equally because the banking firm has tax credits to use swearingen predicted an increase in operating profits for because he sees higher income and reduced expenses continental will reduce expenses through job cuts and reducing office rental costs in it cut about positions in it had net profits of mln dlrs or cts a share up from mln dlrs or cts a share the bank transferred mln dlrs of poor quality loans and other assets to the federal deposit insurance corp fdic during it can transfer bad loans under the terms of the restructuring agreement with the government the bank will transfer the remaining mln dlrs that it is entitled to transfer to fdic by september swearingen said it will choose loans based on ultimate loss rather than their immediate effect on non performing loans in the bank s loans to the midwest s middle market rose pct at a time of overall weak loan demand in the u s concerning banking acquisitions swearingen said the bank would like to buy additional suburban chicago banks in it bought three small suburban banks swearingen said he is concerned that continental will be taken over because no bank in the midwest region is large enough to buy it and new york money center banks are prohibited by law from buying illinois banks he said however that the fdic still has control over who will eventually own the firm because it still holds the equivalent of mln common shares out of a total mln the fdic sold mln shares to the public last year and has said it intends to sell the rest as quickly as possible the agency received the shares as part of its billion dlrs bailout of the bank swearingen who came out of retirement in to head the struggling banking firm after a career as an oil industry executive said he will retire when the three year period he agreed to be continental chairman ends in august he would not comment on a successor the bank will expand its first options of chicago options cling unit into tokyo swearingen said but said its doubtful lending to japan will occur because that country doesn t need external sources of cash reuter 
