1
 Bank of New England Corp., 
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seeking to streamline its business after a year of weak earnings and mounting loan problems, 
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said 
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it will sell some operations 
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and lay off 4% of its work force.
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 The bank holding company also reported 
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that third-quarter profit dropped 41%, to $42.7 million, or 61 cents a share, from the year-earlier $72.3 million, or $1.04 a share.
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 Among its restructuring measures, the company said 
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it plans to sell 53 of its 453 branch offices and to lay off 800 employees.
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 Altogether, employment is expected to decline to less than 16,000 from the current level of about 18,000.
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 Walter Connolly, chairman, said in an interview 
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that the company expects to record pretax gains of $100 million to $125 million from the sale of its leasing operations and of certain financial processing services.
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 In a prepared statement, the company said 
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it expects to realize those gains before year end.
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 Nonperforming assets continued to pile up in the latest quarter, 
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rising to $900 million, or 3.52% of loans and leases, from $667 million, or 2.68%, at the end of the second quarter.
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 Some $170 million of the $233 million increase in nonperforming loans was related to real estate, 
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and roughly three-quarters of that was in the troubled New England market,
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 according to Richard Driscoll, vice chairman.
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 Mr. Driscoll said 
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that, 
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despite continued weakness in the region's real estate market, 
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Bank of New England expects the rate of increase in nonperforming assets to slow in coming quarters.
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 Mr. Connolly noted 
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that net third-quarter charge-offs, at $63 million, improved slightly from the $67 million in the second quarter.
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 And he indicated 
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that more substantial improvement is expected in the next couple of quarters.
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 The company increased its loan loss reserve to $354 million from $342 million at the end of the second quarter.
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 Total assets slipped to $31.4 billion, from $32 billion as of June 30.
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 Among other restructuring measures, the bank said 
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it will close its loan production offices in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
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 The Chicago office figured prominently in the bank's problems earlier this year, 
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when $65 million in loans to Chicago businessman William Stoecker went sour.
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 In an internal memorandum to employees, Messrs. Connolly and Driscoll described the restructuring as an effort 
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to continue rationalizing operations 
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assembled during a series of mergers over the past five years.
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