BRIEFCASE REGULATORS PROBE ZENITH INSURANCE.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

WOODLAND HILLS - Zenith National Insurance Corp. on Monday said California regulators are requesting information about the auto insurer's arrangements and dealings with its agents and brokers.

The California Department of Insurance is questioning the Woodland Hills-based company's relationship with its agents following related legal proceedings in New York.

In October, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer revealed evidence suggesting that insurance broker Marsh & McLennan engaged in bid-rigging with insurance providers.

Zenith said it intends to fully comply with the insurance department's request, even though the company believes it is in full compliance with all statutes and regulations.

Treasury security interest rates up

WASHINGTON - Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities rose in Monday's auction.

The Treasury Department sold $19 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.225 percent, up from 2.180 percent last week. An additional $17 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 2.560 percent, up from 2.465 percent.

The three-month rate was the highest since Oct. 10, 2001, when the bills sold for 2.320 percent. The six-month rate was the highest since Sept. 17, 2001, when the rate was 2.570 percent.

In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, rose to 2.71 percent last week from 2.66 percent the previous week.

Subscribers rise for satellite radio

NEW YORK - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the two big players in the emerging satellite radio business, both announced gains in subscribers Monday as 2004 drew to a close.

Washington, D.C.-based XM, the larger of the two, said it had recently surpassed 3.1 million subscribers, having started out the year with 1.3 million. Sirius, which is based in New York, said it had passed the 1 million mark, having started out 2004 with about 260,000.

Competition between the two companies has been heating up fiercely over the past year, with each one signing contracts for hundreds of millions for sports and talk programming. Both have enlisted help from automakers in marketing the services, under which users pay a monthly fee for coast-to-coast access to hundreds of channels, many of them commercial-free.

Fannie Mae head has cash coming

WASHINGTON - Franklin Raines, who was forced out as Fannie Mae's chief executive after five years, is slated to receive a monthly pension of more than $114,000 for life, according to documents the mortgage lending giant filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The documents, which also reveal that Raines has deferred compensation of $8.7 million to be paid out through 2020, also owns more than $5.5 million in Fannie Mae's stock, the filing said.

Federal regulators have asked Fannie Mae to hold off paying out any compensation to Raines until it has time to investigate the package, and whether it was appropriate for the lender to let Raines retire early rather than be dismissed.