BANKING/FINANCE

Alleged Buying Plan: At the criminal trial last week, a former Lincoln president described Keating’s unusual response to a highly critical story that appeared in Forbes magazine: Keating wanted to buy up all the magazine’s copies sold near Lincoln’s 29 Southern California branches.

The October, 1988, story contended that the shaky financial condition of Lincoln’s parent company posed a risk to small investors--mostly Lincoln customers--who were buying more than $250 million in corporate bonds.

Ray C. Fidel, the former Lincoln president who testified against Keating last week, told jurors that Keating wanted him to send out a “runner” to buy up all the Forbes magazines being sold in area stores.

Fidel said he gave a Lincoln employee some money to buy up the magazines but quickly called off the operation. “It was just too monumental a task,” he said.