US Banker articles from July 2007

US Banker archives from July 2007

This Month.(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... 30 Cover Story: The Unraveling of the Student-Loan Business The allegation that some lenders bought their way onto colleges' preferred-lender lists has sparked a wave of investigations and hearings. The collateral damage has included the...

Split Citi Up? The Merger Was Fated from the Start.: The intense scrutiny that Charles Prince has been under in the past four years is something few bank CEOs will ever know. None of them runs institutions as complex as Citigroup.
July 1, 2007... "To the victor belong the spoils" is likely something not emblazoned on a wall plaque in Citigroup chief Chuck Prince's office. No one can blame him for not identifying with such sentiment. It's hardly been a victory lap since Prince was...

Fraud: Mutual Bank Scams Point To Flaws in IPO Process: Authorities have no plan to fix the problem.
July 1, 2007... A fraud case in New Jersey has ended a 10-year crime spree involving initial public offerings at mutual banks in 20 states, and prosecutors say they will aggressively pursue other cases. However, regulators say they aren't weighing changes in...

Scene and Heard.(Quotation)
July 1, 2007... "Do we really need more sources of residential lending?" Jeff Greenlee, president of NBanc, on whether small banks will compete with the Farm Credit System. "These beautiful photographs make our bank a more welcoming place for our...

Microfinance: America's Bank to the Poor Teams Up With H&R Block: For-profit Grameen will target underbanked.
July 1, 2007... Grameen America, modeled after the 24-year-old Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, is teaming up with H&R Block to bring the lending techniques that are helping the Third World's poor prosper to the hypercompetitive U.S. market. A pilot program in New...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Bank of America Corp. appointed Lynn Davis, Frances Aldrich Sevilla-Sacasa, Leo Grohowski)(Fifth Third Bancorp. appointed Mary Tuuk )
July 1, 2007... Bank of America's chief investment officer Ian Banwell started an alternative-investments firm, Round Table Investment Management, taking with him Bob Miller and Jason Osier. BofA is taking a stake in Banwell's firm. BofA also announced a new...

In Memoriam: Preston Martin.(In memoriam)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Preston Martin, 83, the onetime No. 2 Fed officer from 1982 to 1986 who advocated for fair-lending practices, died May 30. In the 1970s, he helped create the Freddie Mac agency. (c) 2007 U.S. Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights...

After Estonia Cyber Attacks, U.S. Frets Over Potential Cyber War.
July 1, 2007... The U.S. Treasury Department's decision to sponsor an industry-wide exercise this fall for the financial-services sector to test its ability to respond to a pandemic crisis, such as a bird flu outbreak, is taking on a different, and more...

Noted Noteworthy.(briefs)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... What's next, the Nicotine Card? The Arriva card, the first credit card designed specifically for use in casinos, has initiated a "bounty" program to reward casinos for signing up applicants. The card, not even a year old, has extended more than...

Next for Top Court: Securities Fraud: Whether banks that help public firms commit fraud are also liable soon will be a question before the Supreme Court. Its decision will affect litigants in the still-simmering Enron case.
July 1, 2007... In what legal observers are calling the most important securities-law dispute to reach the Supreme Court in two decades, a hot-button issue is poised to be resolved soon: Are secondary parties like banks culpable if they remain silent after...

Email Security: Convincing Boards To 'Get' Portal Technology: This workflow-management tool promises to cut the time of assembling the board book, plus comes with two-factor authentication and encryption. Is this the Holy Grail?
July 1, 2007... It's tough to imagine a situation as unseemly as HP's boardroom scandal coming from a major financial institution, but Citigroup's Todd Thomson-Maria Bartiromo debacle certainly had its share of salacious insider details that CEO Charles Prince...

Core Systems: Metavante, Temenos Get to Core on Offering: In a technology market rumored to be ripe for consolidation, banks will have to survey the landscape carefully.(Temenos Group)
July 1, 2007... Core-system swapouts are of increasing interest to banks, which need to support new products like health savings accounts and technologies like remote deposit-image capture, but find that layering these new functions on top of siloed legacy...

Customer Feedback: In-Store E-Surveys Or Mystery Shoppers?: Banks once relied heavily on mystery shoppers to gauge customer-service levels. Customer e-surveys could change how banks obtain feedback-and provide a better idea of the real quality of client interaction.
July 1, 2007... Mystery shopping helps financial institutions measure teller/product awareness and service acumen, but one Tallahassee, FL-based regional bank found it mainly exposed the limits of using faux customers. With scripted questions and...

CMOs: Why They Still Don't Get No Respect: Soft on metrics, weak on technology, low on companywide experience: Marketing chiefs still seek the kind of credibility they need to succeed and change their tarnished images.(Survey)
July 1, 2007... A few weeks back, high-school seniors across America chose annual graduation honorariums-class clown, best-dressed student, the usual. If the same vanity fairs were held for C-level executives, guess who'd win "Least Likely to Succeed?" ...

AD Beat: Community Bank's 'Bank Happy' Sets Cheerful, Playful Tone: One small-town bank decided not to look to its big-city neighbors for inspiration. Instead, it decided to highlight what makes community banking worth choosing.(advertisement)
July 1, 2007... Can a bank advertising campaign really make one smile? Community Bank System's certainly tries. Its cheerful collection of print ads features photos of attractive, grinning Americans and tries to tickle the funny bone. And these characters...

Financial CHAR-AID.
July 1, 2007... The student-loan system is plagued by scandal, with allegations of some lenders buying "preferred lender" status at colleges with kickbacks, travel junkets and other perks to gain favor with school officials. Education secretary Margaret...

Community Banks Reporting Greater Pressure to Use BI: Community banks are seeing lower prices for business-intelligence products, though they're weathering more competitive pressure from big banks. But BI also helps small banks be better banks.
July 1, 2007... Business-intelligence products are gaining traction among community banks as prices for the technology fall, according to vendors and bankers. And as bankers feel the growing pressure for greater sums of usable customer data, the use of BI...

Of Top-25 Subprime Funders, Four in '06 Went Bust: What's next for this battered industry? Mortgage rates can't hold out much longer against steady rate hikes from the Fed, which are expected this year to help tame inflation. Maybe the herd needed thinning.(Company rankings)
July 1, 2007... Four of the nation's top-25 subprime funders in 2006 have gone bust over the past four months, with several others trying to sell themselves to avoid liquidity crunches, according to analysis conducted by National Mortgage News, a sister...

Top Residential Originators.(Company rankings)
July 1, 2007... As of December 31, 2006 (dollars in millions) Origination Volume Rank Organization Name 2006 2005 % Change % Market Share Mkt Shr% pt. +/- 1 Countrywide Financial Calabasas, CA $455,638 $490,947...

Top Residential Servicers.(Company rankings)
July 1, 2007... As of December 31, 2006 (dollars in millions) Servicing Volume($MM) Rank Organization Name 2006 2005 % Change % Market Share Mkt Shr% pt. +/- 1 Wells Fargo Home Mortgage San Francisco, CA $1,341,870 $1,005,410 33% 15.62%...

Retirement Redefined: More Work, Less Leisure: Baby Boomers may want-and need-to start small businesses in retirement. Are banks ready for this potentially huge small-business loan demand? KeyBank, for one, is positioning itself.
July 1, 2007... Baby Boomers nearing retirement may not be ready to hit the shuffleboard court full time. Indeed, demographic observers predict that this group, whose oldest members turn 61 this year, will open small businesses at a rapid rate in their golden...

Banks Fret Over Expected Spike In Company Failures: Corporate debt for the top 1,000 companies may be healthy, but smaller firms' numbers are not so glowing. In fact, that's where things get dicey. Along with loan defaults, corporate bankruptcies are expected to hit hard in '07.(Survey)
July 1, 2007... Banks that extend loans to middle-market firms will have their work cut out for them in the next 12 months. A widely anticipated decline in credit quality never surfaced in 2006, making industry participants all the more nervous that it will...

If Your Client Has Hit the Big Five-O, Does She Have Another 50 Years to Go?: The danger of clients outliving their money is a reality, as more people reach their 100th birthdays. Insurers are responding with innovative products that address that growing need.
July 1, 2007... People are living longer-no debate about that these days-and the implications for the financial-services industry are significant. The goal has long been to ensure that customers don't outlive their money, but that challenge rises considerably...

Mobile-Phone Banking: Coming to a Bank Near You.
July 1, 2007... Retail-banking interactions take place through a variety of delivery channels that have emerged over time. What's the next step? With more than 225 million U.S. subscribers, the answer seems to be mobile phones, owned by an astounding 76...