CHARLOTTE - Wachovia said Monday that federal and state regulators are demanding information from its securities unit and affiliates about auction-rate securities.

The Charlotte bank also trimmed a write-down related to an insurance portfolio by $1 million, reducing its total loss in the first quarter to $707 million.

Wachovia made the disclosures about the inquiries and subpoena in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wachovia said the SEC and other regulators are seeking information about the underwriting, sale and subsequent auctions of municipal auction-rate securities and auction-rate preferred securities.

The interest rates on such securities are reset at regular auctions.

Trouble has arisen as demand for some high-rate securities dries up and rates fall.

"Further review and inquiry is anticipated by the regulatory authorities," the company said in the filing, "and Wachovia will cooperate fully."

According to the filing, the bank and Wachovia Securities have been named in a lawsuit filed in March in New York. The lawsuit seeks class-action status for customers who purchased and continue to hold such securities based on alleged misrepresentations concerning the quality, risk and characteristics of the securities. The bank said it "intends to vigorously defend the civil litigation."

Meanwhile, Wachovia chief executive Ken Thompson tried to reassure investors at a conference in New York. Thompson told them that recent negative news about his bank "gives the perception that Wachovia is a company in crisis," but "that is not the situation at all."

He said the bank is taking steps to address a recent spate of regulatory and other concerns, including hiring a third-party firm to analyze its financial controls and risk management practices. The review could take three to four months, Thompson said.

Thompson is under fire because of Wachovia's earnings problems and stock slide.

In April, the bank announced a 41 percent cut in its dividend.

And over the past month, the bank had reached a $144 million regulatory settlement related to telemarketers who took advantage of thousands of elderly consumers. The bank said it might take an after-tax charge of $800 million to $1 billion in the second quarter tied to past transactions, which involved lease-to-service contracts and leases of technological equipment.

Last week, Wachovia stripped Thompson of his title as chairman and named board member Lanty Smith as nonexecutive chairman. Thompson remains CEO.

Shares rose 59 cents to $28.22.