FINANCIAL SERVICES

First Union Corp. said its president, John Georgius, will retire at the end of the year and will be succeeded by Ken Thompson, who has headed the bank’s capital markets unit. A bank spokeswoman denied that Georgius, 54, was forced out. Georgius, who began his banking career in 1963 and joined First Union in 1975, has been described as the mastermind behind the bank’s “Future Bank” overhaul, which has been criticized by some customers as being impersonal.