NEWS: U.S. Lowers Finance Terror Alert Status, page 1

After three months of High Alert for financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., federal officials with the Department of Homeland Security have lowered the localized threat level from Orange to Yellow. DHS officials cited increased security measured at the four buildings as the reasoning behind lowering the threat level.

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WASHINGTON - Federal authorities lowered the terror alert status for areas around financial institutions in New York, Washington and northern New Jersey, saying Wednesday that additional security precautions had reduced the threat.

The lowering from orange to yellow, the midpoint on the government's five-level terror warning system, comes three months after the alert was raised because of concerns the institutions and the areas around them could be al-Qaida targets. Yellow is "elevated," while orange is considered a "high" threat of attack.

In a conference call with reporters, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary James Loy said improvements in security and emergency preparations taken since the threat was raised Aug. 1 allowed the government to make the change.

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The threat level was initially raised for the Citigroup Center building, the New York Stock Exchange, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J. based on photographs and surveillance found on a computer in Pakistan.

The feds believe that the buildings have increased their physical and cyber security to a point where the threat level Orange was no longer necessary.

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