News In Brief

Big New York bank cuts its prime rate half a point

Bankers Trust Company reduced its prime lending rate Monday to 12.25 percent from the 12.75 percent established by most of the banking industry last month. The move by the nation's ninth-largest bank came at a time when business borrowers are increasingly turning to other sources for short-term loans and followed declines in the cost of raising funds for banks.

At the start of the year, the prime rate stood at 11 percent. But it climbed to 13 percent in June.