US Banker articles from February 2004

US Banker archives from February 2004

Rants and Raves.
February 1, 2004... Dog Days in Dixie As a former stock analyst that followed (mostly) Southern banks for the past 25 years, I especially enjoyed Glen Fest's article, "Dog Days," (January 2004) on SunTrust. The company is a classic case of digging a...

JPMorgan-Bank One Deal Sure to Start Things Up: The first big merger of the year signals the start of a new wave of consolidation in banking, and it will have more than Avon ladies ringing doorbells.
February 1, 2004... The Avon ladies won't know what hit them. The $60 billion union of JPMorgan Chase, the second-largest bank in the country, and Bank One, the sixth-ranking bank by assets and the world's largest issuer of Visa cards (including Avon's very own...

Mergers: Bank of America Goes Under the Microscope: Fleet deal draws Fed scrutiny, public hearings.
February 1, 2004... Thanks to a raft of letters from community groups and an appeal from Massachusetts legislators, the Federal Reserve Board extended public comment on the proposed Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial merger to include two public hearings....

Scene and Heard.
February 1, 2004... "Give me a trillion dollars and I can throw you a helluva party." Barry Ritholtz, strategist at Maxim Group, on whether the economy is solidly improving or deeper problems are masked by rock-bottom Fed rates. "Essentially, it's not as...

Hits and Has-Beens.
February 1, 2004... Unity Bank's president and CEO, Anthony J. Feraro, has resigned following a voluntary leave of absence prompted by a probe of expense reimbursements by the bank's audit committee. The amount in question was reported to be less than $15,000....

Real Estate: A Room with a View: Even bankers need a roof over their heads.
February 1, 2004... The current low interest rates have changed the real estate strategies for almost all corporate America except for the banking industry. For the past decade, corporations typically have sold real estate and leased back the space as needed....

Fresh Ink.
February 1, 2004... 1. Jersey City-based Provident Financial plans to buy Woodbridge, NJ-based First Sentinel Bancorp in a cash and stock deal worth $642 million. The combined bank will be the 8th largest in NJ with a concentration in Middlesex County, an...

Debt Payments: Defaults Fall in 2003, But Questions Linger: Just why was that check late?
February 1, 2004... Defaults are down around the world and credit upgrades are on the upswing. Sounds like good news for almost everybody, except the occasional vulture investor. What's not to like? For bankers, there could be plenty, market watchers. Numbers are...

Pipeline.
February 1, 2004... The ABA's Take on plastic Debit and credit cards have surpassed cash and checks as the preferred way to spend in stores, according to a nationwide consumer payments study by the American Bankers Association and Dove Consulting. But not by...

Community vs. Community.
February 1, 2004... In the salad bowl of the world, all Joan Michaels wants to see is a little more green. As finance director for King City, a small California town in lush southern Monterey County, Michaels has tossed and turned for the better part of a...

Noted and Noteworthy.
February 1, 2004... Don't be fooled by the stories of nostalgia for the former East-Ostalgie-which is popular now in any talk of chilly Berlin or stubborn Schroeder or the New Germany. There's an even greater nostalgia to be had. It's for what was even...

Through the Looking Glass: China has arrived, carrying more now in its portfolio than the bomb. As U.S. financiers pursue politics and commerce, it's worth noting interests on the other side can push back.
February 1, 2004... Just the other day dragons rolled, drums beat, silk flew, cymbals crashed and firecrackers roared in greeting the new Chinese year of the Monkey. The noise drowned out the gnashing of teeth in some quarters as the Chinese government used...

What It Takes to Protect Intellectual Property: Financial firms are deluging the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with applications, which soared 15-fold between 1995 and 2002. But can converting valuable ideas into assets pay off? And at what price glory-if at all?
February 1, 2004... Like the gold rush of late 1840s, financial services prospectors are rushing to stake their claim to their firms' intellectual property, flooding the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office with applications since the turn of this century. ...

Bank One Buffs Its Image, Care of Avon: If you're at home during the day, watch out. The nation's 600,000 Avon reps-a cosmetics army totaling more than the population of Cleveland-are now packing plastic, courtesy of Bank One.
February 1, 2004... The local Avon lady is now carrying plastic in her cosmetic bag. A new partnership between Bank One and Avon marks the first time a card issuer has employed another company's distribution network-600,000 Avon reps-as part of an affinity...

AD Beat: Laying Down the Law With A Measure of Optimism: Sam Waterston is the third Law & Order actor to pitch for TD Waterhouse. But this trustworthy guy gets to do something his predecessors didn't: break the rules.
February 1, 2004... Since 1990, Law & Order has become a fixture on television, producing several spin-offs, supporting a generation of struggling New York actors with bit parts and establishing itself as one of the premier franchises in the medium's history. It's...

After Years Behind the Scenes, Bean Counters Go Prime Time: Enron put finance officers in the public eye, even if numbers are still hard for the public to follow. US Trust CFO Linda Huber discusses the way the job is changing and what it means to account for more of the brand image.
February 1, 2004... The bright light shining over the last three years on accounting scandals and other sins among financial firms changed the role of number crunchers. It's forcing chief financial officers into the spotlight whether their company's been roiled by...

U.S. Bancorp's Smooth Operator.
February 1, 2004... Jerry Grundhofer has a knack for making people see things his way. Lauded for building one of the best bank management teams around, U.S. Bancorp's chief executive has used his operational skills and his salesmanship to meld four different...

In Land of Rising Sun, Rays of Hope for Struggling Bank Sector.
February 1, 2004... Though Japan's banks have been ailing for more than a decade, the sector's pulse is strengthening. Signs of change are everywhere, as the four megabanks reported second-half 2003 profits for the first time in 20 years. Critics acknowledge the...

We Knew We were Smallest in Texas. Not America.: Roddy Rawls Wiley, head of Oakwood State Bank, is a small fixture in a state that thinks big. His firm's little more than a place for townfolk to hold their money. He's indispensible.
February 1, 2004... There are as many ways to stay in business as there are Americans. Down the highway from Palestine, TX, and up from the Trinity River woods, Roddy Rawls 'R.R.' Wiley, the man who runs America's smallest bank, thinks he's got it figured out by...

Get Some Shelter? Make it Big, Or Just Fade Away.: The red-hot housing market is cooling. LaSalle and RBC Centura, offspring of foreign parents, are making moves to take lasting holds in consumer finance from Chicago to Chapel Hill. Got to move fast.
February 1, 2004... In September, RBC Financial finished buying Houston-based Sterling Capital Mortgage. The big Canadian firm continues to bet heavy on the U.S. mortgage banking industry even as the bloom seems to be quickly fading from the rose. It needs to...

Lots of Ditching and Switching As Owners Seek Deals: Banks are warming up to small business customers, industry analysts say, but research shows that lack of differentiation among financial firms is prompting a slump in loyalty.
February 1, 2004... Small business customers are bouncing around between banks now that competition is picking up in this once neglected segment. Owners are turning out to be a disloyal bunch, with twice as many changing banks in pursuit of a better deal compared...

Getting Noticed by Corporates Is the Break Banks Need: In the rough-and-tumble world of corporate banking, billions of dollars are at stake. With corporate treasurers and CFOs throwing their weight around, banks are forced to do more for less.
February 1, 2004... Cross sell to corporates? Forget it. Labeled "value destroyers" by some, corporate customers have long been a drag on bank profits, and it doesn't look like things will be getting easier any time soon. With treasurers and CFOs throwing their...

Google's Sergey Brin Has The World in His Hands: So which way will he turn? Brin's firm is set for the first Internet-related stock float in ages that's likely to find a big audience. Inquiring minds want to know how the Google paper gets sold.
February 1, 2004... Every few years a stock sale comes along that every investment banker scrambles to get their name on. It's usually a company that causes excitement not just on Wall Street but on Main Street, because it is both well known and thought a...

Why Cry Over Spilt Milk? If You're a Money Manager, Hire a Lawyer and Get Even.: When Parmalat crashed, one of the first counter-attacks came from a pension fund in Alaska. The big boys are playing hardball now. The numbers are adding up.
February 1, 2004... From Nome to Milan in a flash: that's where the modern lawsuit can take you. As Italian food giant Parmalat smolders in the wake of its massive December accounting implosion, the knives are out and already the class-action legal maneuvering is...

What's $135 Billion Between Friends...?: The U.S.'s current account deficit is larger than ever, but foreigners finance it because the dollar is the world's benchmark currency. That could change if the U.S. adopts policies viewed as isolationist or protectionist.
February 1, 2004... At $135 billion dollars, or five percent of the nation's gross domestic product, the current account deficit is as large as it has ever been. While economists aren't pushing the panic button yet, there's general agreement the level is probably...

Timing Off for Mutual Funds.
February 1, 2004... The mutual fund industry has seen its ethical reputation collapse since Eliot Spitzer's complaint against Canary Partners broke a scandal last September. The list of those involved grows longer every week and each successive revelation plumbs...

Optimizing Portfolio Performance.
February 1, 2004... Is your bank's investment portfolio being managed for maximum performance? A recent survey of 150 independent banks suggests the answer is probably no. Many independent banks are being unduly influenced by brokers who profit more by...

U.S. Banker Advertising Contacts.
February 1, 2004... Group Publisher Jay Berfas Thomson Media One State Street Plaza New York, NY 10004 Tel: 212.803.8690 Fax: 646.264.6800 Outside the U.S. Please contact the Publisher U.S. Banker Account Representatives...

One More Regulation for the Pile: By Camden Fine, president & CEO-elect of Independent Community Bankers of America.
February 1, 2004... The world is full of bad actors. Headlines scream about mutual fund managers playing funny with markets to benefit a few at the cost of many, the CEOs that raided the corporate treasuries to profit themselves, the poor widow that lost her house...