US Banker articles from January 2008

US Banker archives from January 2008

This Month.
January 1, 2008... 22 Cover Story: The All-Star Banking Team 2008 Members of the All-Star Banking Team 2008 stood out as much for what they didnt do as for what they didnamely, not getting sucked into the subprime black hole. It was that kind of year. ...

As the Credit Crisis Worsens, All Banks Suffer: The growing resentment in the banking community runs the gamut from the presumed industry bailout of Countrywide to the backlash of waning consumer confidence in bank stocks.
January 1, 2008... Ringing in the New Year generally involves making resolutions aimed at improving ones situation, personal or professional. The start of this year will certainly bring with it one helluva hangover, but the remedy for what ails industry players...

Crime: Websites Help Nab Today's Bonnie & Clyde Wannabes: Using the public's private eyes to catch thieves.
January 1, 2008... From coast to coast, more than a dozen Internet sites are helping to snare bank robbers by posting their photos and gathering public tips. Over the past 13 months, the FBI has either funded or backed three sites dedicated to catching bank...

Scene and Heard.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... [Bank] advisors should become holistic wealth managers. It is a fantastic opportunity for us as an industry to steer business away from the brokerage model [and] into the investment-advisory model. Sallie Krawcheck, chairman and chief...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Barry Zubrow of JPMorgan Chase & Co.)(Walid Chammah and James Gorman Morgan Stanley)(Marvin Adams of Fidelity Investments )(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... JPMorgan Chase & Co. has named Barry Zubrow as its chief risk officer. Morgan Stanley has named Walid Chammah and James Gorman as co-presidents, replacing Zoe Cruz, (right) who is retiring after 25 years. John Thain (left), head of...

Fresh Ink.(mergers and acqusitions)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... 1. Bethesda, MD-based Eagle Bancorp will acquire Fidelity & Trust Bank, which is also based in Bethesda, for $49 million. Fidelity has six branches in the Washington area. The name remains Eagle Bancorp. 2. Summit Credit Union and Great...

Shareholder Suits Against 2 Banks Show Depth of Subprime Debacle.
January 1, 2008... And so it goes. Shareholder suits citing the subprime nightmare have been filed against both Citi and Countrywide Financial in the last month, highlighting how fiercely the storm continues to whirl on Wall Street. The November 5 lawsuit, which...

Noted and Noteworthy.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Nearly two thirds of stolen personal data is used to open a new credit line in victims names, according to a survey by Identity Theft Resource Center. Charges made to such accounts ranged from between $50 and $500,000 and, in aggregate,...

Street Still Cool to Super SIV Fund: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has been pushing the idea for a super SIV fund for nearly three months, but the idea has yet to take off. Is it too self-serving?(super structured-investment-vehicle fund)
January 1, 2008... Given that BlackRock emerged unscathed from the credit and mortgage failures, its selection as manager of the proposed $50 billion super structured-investment-vehicle fund of Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America has lent credibility to...

Customer Feedback: Will Research Tactics Of Egg Hatch at Citi?: There's much to admire in Egg's marketing machine, such as how it quickly gathers client feedback. The trouble Citi confronts is whether the service translates into profits.(Egg Banking PLC)(Citigroup Inc.)
January 1, 2008... Citigroups purchase of the UK-based Internet bank Egg could have a much bigger impact going ahead than the $1.13 billion deal would indicate, bringing not only new accounts and credit card balances into the fold but also introducing Eggs...

Direct Banking Appeals To the Up-and-Comers: The direct-banking sector pioneered by ING Direct and Egg is booming, thanks to great savings-account interest rates. But can growth continue without other products?
January 1, 2008... At the turn of the millennium, direct banking was viewed as being almost taboo. Internet upstart ING Direct was scoffed at by the traditional, stodgy brick-and-mortar banks. Now the bank is the envy of the booming direct-banking sector, defined...

AD Beat: At 2 Banks, Rethinking Rebranding Strategies: Severn Savings Bank of Maryland and Willow Financial Bank of Pennsylvania both needed a new brand image. But each needed a dramatically different execution strategy.
January 1, 2008... When Severn Savings Bank did a recent phone survey of Marylands Ann Arundel County, executives learned two things. One, potential customers in the Chesapeake Bay community would join a community bank. Two, not many people were aware of Severn....

All-Star Banking Team 2008: Members of the All-Star Banking Team 2008 stood out as much for what they didn't do as for what they did-namely, not getting sucked into the subprime black hole. It was that kind of year.
January 1, 2008... Richard Davis had been CEO of U.S. Bancorp for less than two months when the first signs of trouble emerged. It was a Thursday night in early February, and HSBC, the British giant with big consumer-lending operations on this side of the...

The Top 25 Banks of 2008.
January 1, 2008... (based on ROE) Rank Peer Rank Institution Location Ticker Total Assets ROE(%) ROAA(%) Net Income Profit Margin 1 Year Price change(%) 1 Year Total Return Closing Price 1 Mackinac Financial Corp. Manistique, MI MFNC...

Top 10 Money-Center Banks of 2008.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... (based on ROE) Rank Institution Location Ticker Total Assets ROE(%) ROAA(%) Net Income Profit Margin 1 Year Price change(%) 1 Year Total Return Closing Price 1 Bank of Hawaii Corp. Honolulu, HI BOH 10,549,595 26.96 1.85...

Top 10 Mid-Tier Banks of 2008.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... (based on ROE) Rank Institution Location Ticker Total Assets ROE(%) ROAA(%) Net Income Profit Margin 1 Year Price change(%) 1 Year Total Return Closing Price 1 First Regional Bancorp Century City, CA FRGB 2,109,991 22.90...

Top 10 Community Banks of 2008.(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... (based on ROE) Rank Institution Location Ticker Total Assets ROE(%) ROAA(%) Net Income Profit Margin 1 Year Price change(%) 1 Year Total Return Closing Price 1 Mackinac Financial Corp. Manistique, MI MFNC 401,213 33.11...

Wells Fargo & Co. - TOP RETAIL BANK.
January 1, 2008... Total Assets: $549 billion (retail bank is $239 billion) 3Q ROE: 19.12% 3Q ROA: 1.67% 3Q Stock-Price Performance: $37.99 to $32.66; end of quarter: $35.72 3Q Earnings Per Share: $0.68 3Q Net Income: $2.28 billion ...

Citi - TOP WEALTH-MANAGEMENT TEAM.
January 1, 2008... Total Assets Under Management: $1.8 trillion 3Q ROE: 15.17% 3Q ROA: 1.55% 3Q Stock-Price Performance, as of September 30: $35.06 3Q Net Income: $15.58 billion There are reasons people listen when the 800-pound gorilla...

Poor Branch Placement Could Kill Revenues: Common mistakes include bidding wars with bigger banks, poor judgment, unfortunate timing-and biting off more than can be chewed. Be patient, warns one consultant, and take it slow.
January 1, 2008... When community banks consider opening a new branch, a consultant is certain to scream, Location, location, location! Though it may be a novel idea thats fine in principle, many banks dont do sufficient research before throwing open the doors of...

Keeping The Spigot Open: Consumer credit is still largely available, although economists worry the subprime-lending debacle will bleed into the lending market. But then there's that oft-quoted $2 trillion figure.
January 1, 2008... When the senior economist at Goldman Sachs did a back-of-the-envelope calculation in November and announced that losses from the subprime mess could force banks to cut back lending by $2 trillion, he certainly got peoples attention. But besides...

In Pursuit of the Next Whopper: Rising Franchisee Class: Franchises now number about 2,500, and most owners need loans to begin operating. Though franchisees have advantages over traditional small businesses, banks still are neglecting them.
January 1, 2008... The number of franchises in the U.S. has risen by about 65 percent in just the past five years, and this segment of the small-business landscape represents a fertile area for loan growth that largely has gone untapped. Only a handful of...

Banks Newest Growth Plan: Investing in Other Banks: Banks are buying other institutions, or sometimes just pieces of them. One example is BofA's recent $2 billion cash infusion into Countrywide. These deals seem to be everywhere.
January 1, 2008... Banks both big and small are increasingly investing in other financial entities to expand their own growth plans. Bigger banks are often making a strategic investment in smaller banks, with plans to later buy more of the company, if not the...

MBS Risk Models Ignored Fundamental Tension: Wall Street is learning the hard way that mortgages aren't commodities, like oranges, with a simple buyer-seller relationship. Risk models should factor in the tension between home ownership and investors' profit motive.
January 1, 2008... They were financial inventions that would limit risk, provide great returns, were grounded in solid assets. They were perfect, and perfectly popular. Then they failed, and nobody wanted them. Residential mortgage-backed securities, structured...

Isn't It Time to Abandon Proprietary Bank Funds?
January 1, 2008... As parts of the bank industry push into investment products, most institutions say they have embraced open architecture, or the practice of providing multiple external brands through their distribution systems. But, in practice, many mid-sized...

Making Contact Centers Profitable.
January 1, 2008... As some financial institutions struggle to convert customer-contact centers from expense hubs to profit centers, new Dimension Data research points to banks diminishing commitment to contact-center operations, including their lackadaisical...