US Banker articles from July 2009

US Banker archives from July 2009

It's Time to Move Past The Finger-Pointing; Community bankers have long played the us-against-them card, with mixed results, but their efforts have paid off lately.(Commentary)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Alan Kline, Editor-in-Chief The FDIC's plan to assess deposit premiums based on a bank's assets, rather than its deposits, is a testament to the community-banking lobby's growing influence in Washington. In Congressional...

Raking in the Fee Income; Despite recession, banks' income from insurance activity increased in 2008. Citi continues to dominate, but Wells and BofA - thanks to big acquisitions - are catching up.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Alan Kline Among bank holding companies, Citigroup Inc. remains the industry leader in generating insurance revenue, but rivals Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are closing the gap. According to data compiled by...

Getting in the Game; Adding Web-based interactive puzzles and entertainment to the marketing mix adds to brand awareness. The real contest for banks is turning gamers into customers.(Marketing)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Anthony Malakian To help promote its new contactless payment card, Barclays plc produced a video game aimed at young consumers-the demographic the bank sees as most likely to use the card. The player has 20 seconds to aid a...

AD BEAT: New Ally, Big Splash; The former GMAC Bank bets on a name change and an image overhaul to reverse its fortunes.(Marketing)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Anthony Malakian Despite its ties to the beleaguered General Motors and its own capital concerns, GMAC Bank had little trouble attracting deposits after it established a bank holding company in December. Deposits surged 16 percent...

Match Game; Banks need money, and private equity's got lots of it - $1 trillion by some estimates. It seems like a natural marriage and there have been some high-profile pairings, yet many of the industry's heaviest hitters are still just looking, held up by concerns about pricing, control and the uncertain economy.(Cover Story)
July 1, 2009... Byline: John Engen The story behind the year's biggest bank failure was, in many ways, typical of the financial crisis. BankUnited Financial, Florida's largest homegrown banking company, was knee-deep in bad housing loans. It had tried...

The Dollars and Sense of Going Mobile; With budgets shrinking and customer habits shifting, bankers are focusing less on the buzz and more on the bottom line of mobile-banking services.(Mobile Banking)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Glen Fest Banks that latched onto mobile banking a few years ago were more interested in first-mover advantage than profitability. But the squeeze on IT budgets, along with the growing popularity of banking services on smart...

Keeping a Tight Schedule; Whether adopted in-house or on a "cloud," workforce optimization technology is helping H.R. departments reduce employee overhead - without sacrificing service.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Steve Garmhausen Rauly Butler, the retail banking manager at Mechanics Bank in Richmond, Calif., calls the bank's recent investment in sophisticated scheduling technology a "no-brainer." The technology should save the $2.8...

Your Ad Here, Free; Colorado's FirstBank, a creative advertiser in its own right, plans co-promotional marketing services, on the house, to its beleaguered business clients.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Anthony Malakian It's hard to succeed in business without marketing, but try telling that to small-business owners in a recession. When struggling to find buyers for their goods and services, many shop owners are thinking more...

Such Language! Enforcement orders can be harsh. A new advocacy group - Community Bankers Revolt - says they don't have to be.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Robert Barba Can saving face help save a struggling bank? Chuck Frost, the president and chief executive officer of First State Bank in Winchester, Ill., believes it can. His $36.3 million-asset bank is negotiating the terms of a...

A Matter of Maturity; CRE loans held in portfolios are more at risk than commercial mortgage-backed securities. But banks have one advantage over servicers when it comes to workouts: they know their customers.(commercial real estate mortgages)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Heather Landy The shorter the maturity, the smaller the risk - that's supposedly the rule of thumb in lending. But credit crunches have a way of proving exceptions to such rules, and if Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. analyst...

The Case for Building a Social Media Strategy.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Stessa Cohen, Gartner Inc. Social networking Web sites will affect banks more than you think. Social banking, an emerging banking distribution model, has the potential to displace banks from the center of customers' financial...

STUDENT LENDING: A Whole New World; Small lenders are trying to convince lawmakers that they are crucial to the student-aid industry. It's an uphill battle.(Front and Center)
July 1, 2009... Byline: Anthony Malakian Bank of North Dakota makes about 70 percent of the student loans in its home state, but if the Obama Administration has its way, the $3.5 billion-asset bank would be out of the origination business by this time...

Risk Management: Miles to Go; The G30 recommendations are a start, but, as in Canada, meaningful guidance must come from regulators.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Joseph Rosta With all the attention in Washington being given to executive compensation, the credit cardholders' bill of rights, student loans, and the concept of a single banking regulator, the issue of risk management reform...

Holding Companies at which Insurance Income Made up the Highest Percentage of Noninterest Income in 2008.(Snapshot: The Insurance All-Stars)(Brief article)
July 1, 2009... Rank % of Non-Interest Income Bank Holding Company Name City State 1 323.72% Citigroup Inc. New York NY 2 235.06% Alliance Bankshares Corporation Chantilly VA 3 68.51% 473 Broadway Holding Corporation Saratoga Springs NY 4...

FreshInk.(Front and Center)(Brief article)
July 1, 2009... 1. OceanFirst Financial Corp. of Toms River, N.J., is buying Central Jersey Bancorp, which has about $577 million of assets, in an all-stock deal valued at nearly $70 million. 2. First Financial Bancorp in Cincinnati will pay about $12...

Assuming an Old Remedy.
July 1, 2009... Byline: Glen Fest Loan modifications, short sales, and principal reductions have been godsends for some homeowners and lenders, but collectively have failed to pull the housing market out of a ditch. Both RealtyTrac and the Mortgage...

Noted and Noteworthy.(Brief article)
July 1, 2009... Community bankers sure are getting a lot of love in Washington lately. Just days after the FDIC's board of directors voted in late May to establish an advisory committee on community banking, legislation was introduced in the House that would...