"What's driving the market today is a lot of corporate takeover activity resulting from high share values," said Robert C. Griffin, executive vice president and head of loan syndications at BankAmerica Corp. "In the first quarter, we saw that a lot of the very rabid competition from last year lightened up a bit," said one loan syndicator. "One of the reasons for that is that banks are making enough money so that they don't feel compelled to do crazy things." While no one believed that pricing had reached rock bottom, some saw some stabilization. "Although there's still a bit of downward pricing pressure, I think prices, covenants, and maturities have stabilized somewhat in the last couple of months," said Mr. Griffin. Chemical Banking Corp. has once again retained the top lending spot, leading 68 deals that generated more than $46 billion in loans. Chemical commanded a 25% market share, up from 15% in the first quarter of last year.