US Banker articles from May 2008

US Banker archives from May 2008

Rants and Raves.(Funds Transfer Pricing)
May 1, 2008... Funds Transfer Pricing I am disappointed in the OpEd (Funds Transfer Pricing? Just Say No, April) The author does not appear to have a thorough understanding of Funds Transfer Pricing, or at least did not fairly present it. While the...

There's Enough Blame for All. Now, Get on With It.: Perot's argument that judgment and discretion should prevail in business over ambition and greed resonated with an industry whose suffering through the S&L crisis forced it to do some soul-searching.
May 1, 2008... In EDS Corp. founder Ross Perots sharper days, he used to say that business practices should come down to whats right or wrong, not whats legal or illegal. When I saw Perot speak in the early 1990s, Michael Milken was on his way to jail, Drexel...

Trading: JPMorgan's Big Score: Prime Brokerage Business: Bear Stearns deal adds 1,000 hedge fund clients.(Bear Stearns Companies Inc.)
May 1, 2008... There are plenty of unknowns about how the acquisition of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase will play out. But one aspect that seems pretty clear is that JPMorgan has established itself as a major prime brokerage player. JPMorgan gets a...

Scene and Heard.(Quotation)
May 1, 2008... In the last 10 years, protecting the consumer...has gone the way of the Walkman. -Jim Carr, COO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, in Washington, D.C., on one of the problems with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsons...

Extended Hours: Longer Hours Correlate To Higher Deposit Growth: Yet not all can be 'America's Most Convenient'.
May 1, 2008... The term bankers hours has a negative connotation and is an outdated insult at an industry where many institutions have 70-hour work weeks. TD Commerce Bank, for example, has championed customer convenience, offering 78 branch hours per...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Teresa A. Dial, Brian Leach and John Havens joins Citi Consumer Banking )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Teresa A. Dial has been appointed CEO of Citi Consumer Banking in North America and head of international retail banking strategy. CEO Vikram Pandit also appointed Brian Leach as chief risk officer, ousting Jorge Bermudez, who held the position...

FreshInk.(Public notice)
May 1, 2008... 1. American Express bought the commercial-card and corporate-purchasing unit of GE Moneys Corporate Payment Services. The pricetag was $1.1 billion in cash. 2. First Citizens Bancorp, a $6.1 billion-asset bank in Columbia, SC, bought...

SEC Allows Shareholder Vote On Equator Principles Proposal.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 1, 2008... Shareholders of Citi and Bank of America have a right to know the green-washing policies of the banks lending policies, the Securities and Exchange Commission says. In rejecting the banks efforts to block shareholder proposals...the SEC...

Noted and Noteworthy.(worldwide losses from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis)(Masaaki Shirakawa joins Bank of Japan)(federal student-loan program)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The International Monetary Fund warns that worldwide losses from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis could total $945 billion, according to a new report, which criticizes the excessive risk-taking and weak underwriting by undercapitalized banks....

Plan Draws Lukewarm Response: Few industry observers believe Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's regulatory proposal is the answer to all that ails the marketplace. However, the blueprint may be the first key step.
May 1, 2008... The Treasury Departments proposal to reorganize regulation of the financial-services marketplace drew mixed reviews from market participants, with few arguing it will be a panacea to better rearrange the patches on the regulatory quilt. Sure,...

Energy Conservation: How Green Is Green?: The Green movement is gaining momentum in financial services, but executives are finding that it's far easier to cut off the financing of dirty industries like coal-fired power plants than it is to get their own houses in order-even when major cost savings beckon.
May 1, 2008... Lorie Wigle, the general manager of eco-technology at Intel, laughs when she is asked if there are enough computer industry executives with eco or green in their title these days to make up a whole new peer group. But going green is no...

Identity Management: The Lure And Peril Of OpenID: The open-source-credentials movement is perceived as too unproven for many institutions. Yet it might still showcase how lightweight, user-based frameworks can kick-start ID federation.
May 1, 2008... OpenID is a geeks paradise, providing an identity credential that Web users can ferry to different blogs, gaming and social-networking sites. So far, the open-source, three-year-old ID framework is supplying 30 million users with a trusted,...

When Banks Thrive, Clients Should Know: Marketers are promoting the good news that some institutions are doing just fine, lest they get caught in the downward spiral of negative press surrounding most banks.
May 1, 2008... Consumers reading the business press or watching the chattering cable-business news heads probably have been introduced to Ron Hermance Jr. The president and CEO of New Jersey-based Hudson City Bancorp was dubbed Banker of the Year by Jim...

AD Beat: HSBC Trots the Globe To Pursue Mass Affluent: Airport ads target the globally minded with photographic images that cross cultures and geographic boundaries. But does the campaign succeed closer to home?
May 1, 2008... In its latest airport display ads, HSBC takes a lot of latitude, both figuratively and literally. The result is a visually striking series of images that should have no problem luring already captive eyeballs, even if the message occasionally...

House of CRDS: For many lenders, the housing crisis is expected to make 2008 the most challenging year in decades. After Bank of America's rescue of Countrywide, few are feeling the pain more sharply than one of the nation's largest lenders, Washington Mutual. ......
May 1, 2008... For many lenders, the housing crisis is expected to make 2008 the most challenging year in decades. After Bank of Americas rescue of Countrywide, few are feeling the pain more sharply than one of the nations largest lenders, Washington Mutual....

Playing Both Ends Against the Middle: The mid-tier performers that rode out the tumultuous waves of 2007 still have to contend with difficult market conditions this year. But despite the crisis of confidence prompting many institutions to pull back on credit, the smartest banks are those that choose their investments and loan partners wisely.
May 1, 2008... It may seem ironic to talk about top performance by banks when most analysts are predicting the financial industry is 12 months from bottoming out. Yet, despite the crisisthe industry has already seen one rescue (Bank of Americas acquisition of...

Top 200: Best of the Mid-Tiers.(Company rankings)
May 1, 2008... {Ranked by 3-Year Average ROE} Rank/Institution Location Total Assets ($000) Market Value ($M) Closing Price ($) ROE 2007 (%) 3YR Avg. ROE (%) Net Interest Margin (%) Net Income ($000) Total Non-Interest Income ($000) ROAA (%)...

Banks are Failing - But It's Nothing Like the Old Days: Perhaps a little perspective is in order. During the height of the S&L crisis, hundreds of banks were dropping like flies each year. These days, a single bank failure in a fiscal quarter makes national news.
May 1, 2008... All was quiet on the bank-failure front, as it had been for several years. Then came August of 2007, a turning point for the industry when the subprime-mortgage meltdown began to expose the decay in the financial system. In January, the...

Creating a Haven of Comfort For the Rich to Do Business: The mass affluent is a much sought-after segment. To appeal to this group, branch managers have to balance technological advancements with design know-how.
May 1, 2008... Chances are, if one has $100,000 or more in liquid assets, he or she has nice stuff in their home. Whether its luxurious furniture, fine art or the most technologically advanced appliances, the mass affluent know how to live. With that in mind,...

As the Credit Crisis Grinds On, Lending Falls Off the Cliff: Only those with pristine credit will have an easy time getting credit. In the home-equity sector, mortgage issuance is projected to drop a staggering 72 percent. And say goodbye to exotic mortgages.
May 1, 2008... The current climate for loan production might not be Great Depression 2.0, but try telling that to someone with less than perfect credit. Even people with credit scores over 700 are getting turned down for mortgages now, says James Lam, a...

Seeing Where and When To Snag Future Retirees: When pitching retirement plans, banks often pass over small businesses with fewer than than 100 employees. That's a big mistake. Getting in on the ground floor may yield decades-long relationships.
May 1, 2008... At many mom-and-pop shops, one of the toughest questions owners face is: When does it make financial sense to offer employee-retirement plans? The decision comes down to weighing the plans costs against the tax and employee-retention benefits,...

The Best Modern Advice Harkens from the Past: Is there room for yet another private bank in the hyper-affluent Northeast? Executives at The Modern Bank believe so, and they're bringing the personal touch - and also a little star power.
May 1, 2008... When The Modern Bank was launched in midtown Manhattan in 2006, executives philosophy was that private banking is a relationship-driven businessand they knew many affluent clients werent getting the hand-holding they expected. How can a...

What Have You Done For Me Lately?(credit card industry)
May 1, 2008... When it comes to choosing a credit card today, consumers that means all of us are sitting in the drivers seat. With dozens of competing offers to choose from, we can afford to be as selective as we like. Increasingly, that has meant selecting...

Moral Hazard? A Greater Hazard Lurks.: The Fed's involvement in Bear Stearns' sale to JPMorgan Chase has created much concern about "moral hazard." But the real hazard now is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed regulatory blueprint.
May 1, 2008... In October 1907, J.P. Morgan bullied his banker brethren to prevent the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange. In March 2008, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke called upon chief executive Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase to prevent the...