US Banker articles from May 2003

US Banker archives from May 2003

Risky Business?
May 1, 2003... In the April issue of U.S. Banker, my company, HedgeLender, was featured in an article on our flexible, well-regarded HedgeLoan stock loan program. At the end, a comment by a minor intermediary competitor firm was included, potentially creating...

Global Community? The World Can Only Hope.
May 1, 2003... The free world is compelled to rebuild Iraq, complete with a democratic government, with the Iraqis for the Iraqis. It won't be cheap and, even more, it won't be easy. In the war against Iraq, like the Balkans before it, there are no clear...

Anxious Times: The Brittle New Economy: A mysterious Asian flu took hold and forecasts slid. But the catalyst could have been anything.(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)
May 1, 2003... The bottom line is that it's killed one-thousandth the number of people that malaria, all on its own, kills every year. But Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-or SARS, as it's being called-in less than a month is causing experts to slash...

Scene and Heard.
May 1, 2003... "A Mexican small businessman today-even if NAFTA did not exist-is going to have a b---- of a time getting financing because banks aren't lending." Jerry Haar, director of University of Miami Inter-American business and labor program, on...

Student Loans: Banking on Education: Private students loans increase asset base, risk.
May 1, 2003... Four years ago, Sover-eign Bank wasn't inking private student loans. Now they're 10 percent of student loan volume at the bank- evidence of opportunity, but one that some say is risky. College tuition shot up about 37 percent for four-year...

Hits and Has-Beens.(William McDonough appointed chairman of SEC Public Company Accounting Oversight Board)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... William McDonough's been dangling since he said back in January that he'd be leaving his presidential post at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Not anymore. The Securities and Exchange Commission snatched him up to be chairman of its new...

Fresh Ink.(acquisitions, various banks)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... 1. Mercantile Bankshares is ponying up nearly $500 million to take over F&M Bancorp, parent company of Farmers and Mechanics Bank, in a move that would boost Baltimore-based Mercantile's assets by $2 billion, up to almost $13 billion, and add...

Negotiations: Snags Down South: Free-trade agreement may get the go-slow.(Free Trade Area of the Americas)
May 1, 2003... Nothing freezes trade faster than an argument over war. But while talk-show attention might be on the French, American finance execs may be a little more concerned about what happens elsewhere. Pundits say a recently negotiated free-trade...

Pipeline.(industry briefs)
May 1, 2003... Conversion Cash Caught Out An estimated $800 million of both MasterCard and Visa's money is now in limbo after a California judge ruled that the two credit card issuers "deceived" cardholders by intentionally burying information about...

IT spending: Latin America's Web Shuffle: While no gold rush, regionals are pushing e-banking.
May 1, 2003... During the go-go '90s technology seemed to be leading economies around the world into new areas of productivity and profitability, and it was hard to find a sector of the global markets that didn't seem to benefit. Expert opinion had it...

Fear and Loathing on Tryon Street.(Bank of America ad offends bikers)
May 1, 2003... The bank where the executive used to keep a grenade on his desk meets the biker with bruised feelings. It's a scrap a B-movie director would love. Of course this is surreal spillover from ad culture, where the world is compressed to thirty...

Noted and Noteworthy.(HealthSouth fraud case)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Dimmed By the light of the rockets' red glare abroad is the massive fraud at Birmingham, AL-based HealthSouth. It's hard to be staggered by anything these days, but it's worth noting this: according to the regulators' case, it went on for 17...

After the Bombs, the Spoils: A chaotic situation across Iraq is set to be met by potentially chaotic action in Washington, as billions in reconstruction money starts to flow toward competing interests. BY Michael dumiak.
May 1, 2003... War and money have a long history together. As the smoke clears in Iraq, the first controversy over reconstruction contracts is already over. More skirmishes will follow-one person's opportunity is another's proof of conspiracy, and sometimes...

Measuring ROI: Street-Like Valuations For Technology Buys?: The call for ROI has one firm contending it provides dollars-and-cents insight into technology buys-and the impact on share price. A CFO's dream or an industry nightmare?(return on investment, iValue)
May 1, 2003... A bedeviling problem for bankers contemplating technology buys has always been measuring the value created by such investments. The rush to implement new gadgetry in the 1990s meant these deficiencies were often overlooked. Executives are in...

Branch Banking: Back to The Future... Again?: Riggs joins the 21st century with a branch strategy that is risky, if unoriginal. Is It worth it?
May 1, 2003... Plasma televisions, wireless laptops, advanced ATMs, and, more to the point, no tellers. This is what most bank branches were expected to be like by now-or so many industry enthusiasts contended. Enjoy a cup of coffee, search the Web and cash...

Biometrics: Futuristic Fingerprinting: Forget ink-based fingerprints. First Tennessee is one of 26 banks channeling electronic fingerprints between the ABA and the FBI to speed employee security clearance.
May 1, 2003... First Tennessee National Corp. has become the latest financial institution to switch from ink-based fingerprinting to an electronic system, cutting down the wait for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to clear prospective employees to only a...

Electronic Billing and Payment: Imagine, Rivals and Allies: Being all things to all people is an idea whose time has come and gone-even for outsourcing firms. Fiserv is now offering clients Metavante's EBP&P services.
May 1, 2003... As fierce as the competition among electronic bill pay ment providers can be, the common goal of getting more people to receive and pay bills on-line is leading to cooperation between rivals like Metavante and Fiserv, a sort of coopetition...

Investment Services: Getting in On the SMA Action: Firms like Bank of New York and Metavante are forming alliances to steal managed account business from wirehouses.
May 1, 2003... Asset management professionals and the firms that pay them have separately managed accounts on the brain, and for good reason. The tax-friendly instrument is benefiting from an array of innovative technology advancements and cross-firm...

First USA's Crucible For the Ages: Over two years, nobody caught more grief from customers than First USA. It bled Bank One and ushered in the Dimon era, but there's a broader story to be gleaned from the numbers. What else? What makes people mad.
May 1, 2003... Bryan Carey's decade-long affair with First USA, now over, was tumultuous. Three times the 36-year-old software support specialist stopped and started with a First USA card, each time letting it go. In the end, the late fee set from the...

Other Voices, Other Rooms.(consumers complain to government over checking, mortgage services)
May 1, 2003... Credit card customers may be a volatile crowd. But they're not the only finance customers with gripes. Plenty write to the government over checking accounts and mortgage services as well. According to federal figures 14,215 complaint...

AD Beat: Moving Beyond Merely Wallet-Size: Chicago-based Discover, an underdog that's shown lasting power in a tight marketplace, cheerleads its months-long effort to push plastic to places it hasn't gone before.
May 1, 2003... A credit card company struggling for clout against industry goliaths Visa and MasterCard is airing two off-the-wall commercials to promote its cowabunga Discover 2GO card, which comes on a handy-dandy key chain to give it an advantage over...

Out of Step.(Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac worry banks)
May 1, 2003... They're exempt from state and local taxes and from registering most securities with the SEC. They have sharply lower capital requirements. Combined, these factors give Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a gargantuan advantage in the market. Their...

Performance Built One Mortgage at a Time: Flagstar. Hudson United. Doral. USB's annual performance ranking proves being biggest doesn't make you best.
May 1, 2003... Once again Michigan-based Flagstar Bancorp is proving that cash returns can be measured in terms other than sheer size and global power. And in finance home-or rather, the housing market-is where the cash is. Quietly performing near...

Top 100 Publicly Traded: Bank and S&L Companies.(return on average equity)(Illustration)
May 1, 2003... Based on return on average equity. Data as of December 30, 2002. All dollars in thousands. (part 1 of 3) Rank Name City, State 1 Flagstar Bancorp Troy MI 2...

If Money Not Be Thy Servant, It Be Thy Master: Mammon, maybe, but even the temple needs money for the roof. It's hard to get a lender these days who wants to oblige; church bonds are becoming a popular alternative to banks.
May 1, 2003... In an age of science, God's house is packing 'em in. Take a look at NorthRidge Christian Church, for example. Since 1997, the Plymouth, MI, non-denominational congregation quadrupled its membership; it now has over 6,000. The surge in...

GMAC's No-Interest Drive Has Banks Flooring the Gas: With GMAC and other auto finance companies offering zero-percent financing on loans to new car buyers, banks are having a hard time keeping their auto loan portfolios strong. But can GMAC keep it up?
May 1, 2003... Banks and credit unions have taken a back seat in consumer auto lending following the latest round of zero-percent financing offers from GMAC. While these deals could elicit the consumer spending on big-ticket items that economists say is...

PNC Catches Them Through the Cracks: Unable to meet select federal loan standards, some young businesses in the Northeast are having trouble obtaining the dough they need to grow. PNC Bank is looking to fill the need.
May 1, 2003... With all of the Small Business Administration lending programs available today, one would think any small business with a reasonable income and credit history would have access to money, even in a recession. Not so, says Pittsburgh's PNC Bank....

Abroad and at Home, They Play it to the Bone: Venture capital already seems so Clinton era, and some bank players are cutting out of the private equity game. Bank One, however, is happy to take the contrarian view and ride out the lean years.
May 1, 2003... Private equity shops are feeling the heat as commercial and investment banks, already running lean in rough times, are looking everywhere to shave weight. A number of finance companies are shopping around their private equity divisions, sources...

The Wedding is a Cake Walk. Finances Aren't Blissful.: Newlyweds face an array of complex financial issues-from budgeting dual incomes to setting up joint investment and retirement accounts. Financial planners are helping out.
May 1, 2003... Everything is going right for Amy and Jay Waterman. The couple was married in June of 2001 in an $18,000 wedding in Hanover, NH. Jay has a promising accounting practice; Amy teaches at a private school and runs marathons. The newlyweds...

Identity and the Insider Threat.(identity theft through business databanks)
May 1, 2003... The typical identity bandit no longer pilfers gar-bage cans searching for credit card receipts. Today's identity thief is a white- collar, computer-savvy employee with desktop access to large financial databases chock full of customers' names,...

U.S. Hispanic Market has Immense Potential for Card Issuers.
May 1, 2003... Despite the rapid growth and spending power of the U.S. Hispanic population, this group has been virtually ignored by marketers and represents an untapped universe of potential for marketing of credit cards. Studies show that consumer...