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  1.                                                                                 BUSINESS, Page 41Business NotesBANKINGPierced by a Blue Arrow
  2.  
  3.  
  4.     Britain's giant National Westminster P.L.C. likes to
  5. advertise itself as the "Action Bank." Last week the action made
  6. front-page headlines when four of the bank's top executives,
  7. including chairman Lord Boardman, resigned. The NatWest
  8. shake-up, unprecedented in British banking, followed a July 20
  9. report by the Department of Trade and Industry that accused the
  10. institution's investment-bank subsidiary of having "deliberately
  11. misled" stock-market investors and broken British corporate
  12. laws. The report said the wrongdoing occurred when a $1.35
  13. billion stock offering by an employment-services company called
  14. Blue Arrow flopped and NatWest ended up in possession of 13.4%
  15. of the company's shares, a holding it illegally concealed from
  16. market regulators for months. In announcing his resignation,
  17. effective Sept. 30, Lord Boardman, 70, admitted that "there were
  18. serious failings" in handling the Blue Arrow issue.
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