US Banker articles from May 2005

US Banker archives from May 2005

East West's Positive Energy.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2005... I would like to point out that the paintings in the headquarters building of East West Bancorp ("Risk Aversion as an Art Form," March 2005) serve a different purpose than just decoration and investment. They have a lot to do with the Chinese...

Managing for Change, Mentoring for the Future: Executives who succeed in business often were influenced by those who had themselves been mentored. In the past, this rarely applied to women. That's what's different about business today.
May 1, 2005... When I talk with industry players who have achieved success, two things are apparent: They often were influenced by those who had themselves been mentored, and they learned to manage for change. In the past, this rarely applied to women. That's...

Community Bank Ownership: SOX Costs Prompt Switch From Public to Private: But is compliance savings worth the hassle?
May 1, 2005... Additional compliance costs of Sarbanes-Oxley, which can reach as high as $2 million annually, are pushing many public community banks to go private and avoid onerous reporting requirements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. "To...

Scene and Heard.
May 1, 2005... "Do you balance your checkbook? If you do, you're in the minority. About 85 percent [of customers] just don't do it." MIKE MOEBS, chairman of economic research firm Moebs Services "Growth [in Libyan banking] will be in retail, though...

Emerging Markets: Is Libya the Next Frontier for U.S. Banks?: As the nation passes reforms, profits beckon. But chaos abounds.
May 1, 2005... With a banking-reform law passed in January in Libya, and both U.S. and U.N. sanctions now lifted, foreign banks are tiptoeing into this former pariah state, whose 5.6 million people are largely unbanked. U.S., European and Middle Eastern...

Hits and Has-Beens.(appointments in banking industry)
May 1, 2005... PNC Financial Services Group named Michael N. Harreld, a 36-year veteran of the company and now regional president of its Kentucky banking operations, as regional president of its metropolitan Washington, D.C., franchise. Harreld will assume...

Fresh Ink.(mergers of banking industry)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... 1. First Horizon National agreed to buy West Metro Financial in a $32 million cash and stock deal, enabling First Horizon to expand into Georgia. The bank said it hired a high-level executive in January to seek a takeover target in the state....

Pipeline: Insurance Fees Soar.(insurance brokerage fee )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Banks increased their 2004 insurance brokerage fee income by 22.2 percent, from $2.97 billion in 2003 to a record $3.63 billion in 2004, according to a new report by Michael White Associates. The report, cosponsored by Financial Keyosk,...

Word Is...
May 1, 2005... An Affair to Remember: Morgan's Board Stands By Its Man...For Now Will the Morgan Stanley board blink? The brain drain at the white-shoe firm continued unabated last month as the firm's two top bankers departed. The exit of Joseph Perella,...

Noted and Noteworthy.
May 1, 2005... It doesn't yet have the sting of Bank of America's recently lost data tapes-two of which contained the personal information of 1.2 million federal government credit cardholders-but give it time. The news from LexisNexis is getting worse by the...

Huh? What Conflict of Interest?: A new Senate report, fingering eight other banks besides Riggs, says money laundering in the case of Pinochet was endemic to the industry. But a new rule may curb future abuses.
May 1, 2005... Recent revelations that eight other banks besides Riggs helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and his family hide their wealth in a clandestine labyrinth of accounts-and that Riggs' involvement was deeper than initially...

Modeling: JPMorgan, Bank One Marry Their Platforms: New software allows JPMorgan Chase to understand how its IT systems will interact with those of its new acquisition. That provides valuable insight for tough decisions.
May 1, 2005... While the Street last year debated how complementary the investment banking/retail wedding between JPMorgan Chase and Bank One would be, Tom Martin was analyzing a more difficult coupling prompted by the $58 billion merger. Martin, vp of...

From Toasters to Blackberrys: Promotional Gifts Go Modern: For consumers, it's not the thought behind the gift that counts-it's the bling itself. And with competition increasingly stiff, banks are offering a host of valuable giveaways.
May 1, 2005... This is not your father's toaster. Well, actually, maybe it is. With PNC Bank giving away Blackberrys and Citigroup doling out iPods, the age of the promotional gift has taken a new twist. PNC Bank's $30 million advertising campaign, which...

AD Beat: Provident Pitches Its Brand Like a Big Bank: The message that Provident Bank is looking to convey could have come straight from the tale of Goldilocks: one competitor is too big for consumers, another is too small. But Provident claims it's just right.
May 1, 2005... Baltimore-based Provident Bank, with $6.5 billion in assets, approaches its branding initiatives like a big bank. That is, it actually has a branding initiative. The bank made a conscious decision to promote its brand as the most important...

A California Startup Gets To Know Its Customers: De novos like Beach Business Bank grapple with founding a startup and adhering to stringent regulations. In some ways, it's easier than it used to be.(Interview)
May 1, 2005... There was a time someone could walk off the street and open a bank account with little more than a driver's license-and not even a real one at that. And if he was really ambitious, he could open 10 accounts at 10 banks by strutting a few...

Brand Envy.(commercial companies are branching out into banking.)
May 1, 2005... Lured by fat profits, new charters and technology, commercial companies are branching out into banking. From BMW and Volvo to Nordstrom and GE, they have enviable brands and deep pockets. But none has the potential to do more damage to banks...

The Big Guys Had A Good Run Last Year: But don't expect it to last.
May 1, 2005... Median return on equity last year topped 15 percent as many banks rode the fumes of the mortgage boom. This year and next will be tougher. The 100 largest U.S.-based banks saw a median, one-year return-on-equity of 15.1 percent,...

Top 100 Publicly Traded Banks of 2004: Banks & thrifts with assets of $5.5 billion and up. Ranked by 3-year average ROE.(Illustration)
May 1, 2005... (part 1 of 3) Market Total Value Assets Rk Institution ($M) ($000) 1 Flagstar Bancorp...

The Thousand Cuts.
May 1, 2005... Political violence and terror give executives nightmares, rightly so given the most devastating attack on American soil-9/11-was aimed squarely at the financial industry. But those nightmares are sucking too much oxygen out of conversations...

Vendor Security Issues Squeeze Community Banks: When it comes to data security, the weakest link is often not the bank, but a bank's service provider. For small banks with less staff, vetting and monitoring vendors will stretch personnel even further.
May 1, 2005... The recent wave of customer information theft reported by ChoicePoint, LexisNexis and Bank of America, combined with March 23 regulatory guidance, puts added pressure on all banks to secure their customer data. As part of this tightening...

As Industry Collects Billions, Consumers Cry Foul: Consumer groups say some banks encourage customers to overextend themselves. Though regulators have stepped in to halt misleading overdraft-protection practices, advocates warn it's not enough.
May 1, 2005... Overdraft protection has become a hotly contested issue, and while banks are expected to begin communicating their policies on fees more clearly in the wake of joint guidance published in February by regulators, consumer advocates say that yet...

Reaping What They Sow. Do Banks Have Spring Fever?: As short-term interest rates rise, banks eager to put their excess cash to work may be planting the seeds for the next crop of bad loans. Let the digging begin.
May 1, 2005... Commercial lending just can't catch a break. Expected to be a major benefit to bottom lines all over the industry last year, commercial lending never really caught fire in 2004, rising just 2.9 percent to $909 billion, according to the Federal...

Food for Thought, Delivered with Dramatic Flair: Dealing with wealthy clients can be a delicate matter. But a Chicago theater troop is helping banks and wealthy clients discuss difficult family issues that often underlay investment philosophies and goals.(Shaking the Tree)
May 1, 2005... Investment decisions concerning the complex portfolios of wealthy clients are always a challenge, but even more bedeviling can be the so-called "soft" issues, those around family dynamics and personal values that play a behind-the-scenes role...

U.S. Banker Advertising Contacts.
May 1, 2005... 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...

What It Means to Be Doing the Currency Limbo: How low can the dollar go? The answer is more complicated than you'd think, and involves real estate prices and the fate of private social security accounts. But bankers should be poised for opportunity.
May 1, 2005... I meet a lot of new people every month. Inevitably the conversation turns to "What do you do?" to which I reply "I'm an economist." I love the look that comes after that; it makes all the pain and suffering of grad school worthwhile. I usually...

Outsourcing Options Expand.
May 1, 2005... The benefits of outsourcing managed services are no longer reserved for the largest financial institutions. For mid-sized institutions, the options for executing processes like customer service from countries around the world are expanding...

First CIO Summit Kicks Off in New York City.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The CIO Summit, a thought-leadership program hosted by U.S. Banker and Bank Technology News, was created to help CIOs and CTOs explore industry challenges and opportunities. It kicked off March 14 with a dinner at The 21 Club, followed by a...