the chase manhattan bank, N.A. &lt;CMB>, isclosing its peruvian consumer banking operations less than
three yeas after they opened, the bank's manager in peru, jorge
sosa, said.
    He told reuters June 30 was the closing date. He said the
measure was not linked to peru's foreign debt position. Chase
is one of peru's top private banking creditors.
    Peru is over 700 mln dlrs in arrears on its interest owed
to its 280 or so private foreign bank creditors, bankers said.
    Sosa said chase opened its local consumer banking operation
in september 1984. It held the equivalent of around four mln
dlrs in deposits and had extended the equivalent of
about five mln dlr in loans.
    The bank still had to decide whether it would sell the
holdings to another banking institution before closing the
operation, he said.
    The closing of chase's consumer operation will leave only
five foreign banks operating this service in peru. Two of them
are institutions from the united states and there is one each
from britain, japan and spain.
 Reuter
