BANKING

Bank to Cut Pharaon Ties: Independence Bank, as expected, plans Monday to wipe out the stake that alleged Bank of Credit & Commerce International front man Ghaith Pharaon holds in the Encino bank in expectation that the Saudi financier will fail to meet a Sunday deadline to recapitalize it. Independence Chairman Fulvio Dobrich disclosed in early September that Pharaon’s stake would be wiped out if the bank failed to receive $27 million. Independence executives hope that cutting the ties to Pharaon will attract buyers who have been reluctant to proceed with talks because the bank’s ownership is clouded. Pharaon, the owner of record of the bank, is alleged by federal officials to have secretly bought Independence for $23 million in 1985 on behalf of the scandal-plagued BCCI.