US Banker articles from October 2006

US Banker archives from October 2006

This Month.
October 1, 2006... 26 Cover Story: The 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking They're smart. They're savvy. They're successful. The individuals profiled in U.S. Banker's fourth-annual ranking of "The 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking" are in a league of their...

A CEO's Public Domain: Big Thinking, Challenges: Becoming CEO of a public company once held nothing but allure for those fortunate enough to ascend. But today's CEO must shun conventional wisdom and wade through myriad complex regulations. It's no picnic.
October 1, 2006... Recent CEO successions are shining a bright light on a crop of talented individuals who will have to steer their public companies successfully through choppy economic, legal and regulatory waters. To do so, this generation of leaders will be...

Architecture: Building 'Green' Saves Banks Even More Green: Industry emerges as leader in movement.
October 1, 2006... Bankers are all about the money-and saving money can be just as good as earning it. That's why banks like PNC Financial Services and Bank of America are at the forefront of the green-building construction craze, which proponents claim can cut...

Scene and Heard.(Quotation)
October 1, 2006... "The green Bank of America building will be iconic. It's a very bold step. And BofA wouldn't do this if it were bad business." - S. Richard Fedrizzi, president and CEO, U.S. Green Building Council, on the Manhattan skyscraper set to open...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Officials and employees)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... Christina Favilla has been named president of Discover Bank, focusing on marketing and new product initiatives. Capital Corp., the parent company of County Bank of West of Merced, CA, has named David Heaberlin as evp, CFO and treasurer. ...

Fresh Ink.(Bank of America Corp.)(RBC Centura Banks Inc.)(Wells Fargo & Co.)
October 1, 2006... 1. Bank of America plans to sell its Asia retail and commercial franchise in Hong Kong and Macau to China Construction Bank for about $1.25 billion. Its corporate banking and wholesale franchise, including treasury services and investment...

Court Fight Gives Banks Nothing, But Better Card Resolution For All.(Banknorth Group Inc., Sovereign Bank)(Fifth Third)
October 1, 2006... The final resolution of a grueling two-year-old lawsuit brought by Banknorth of Portland, ME, and Sovereign Bank of Philadelphia against BJ's Wholesale Club, and its card-issuer, Fifth Third, has prompted Visa and MasterCard to modify their...

Noted and Noteworthy.
October 1, 2006... Talk about team spirit. Columbus Northern Little League of Columbus, GA, won its first World Series game, 2-1, on August 26, beating the international pool winner from Kawaguchi City, Japan. Hometown companies Synovus, TSYS and CB&T together...

Compensation Rule Clouds Horizon: Full disclosure of executive compensation at publicly held firms is required by 2007. That new SEC rule has prompted more controversy than any other in the commission's history.(New York Stock Exchange Inc. - Richard Grasso )
October 1, 2006... Banks are closely eyeing the slugfest in New York Supreme Court as the New York Stock Exchange defends itself against charges that it violated state nonprofit law when it paid former chief Richard Grasso $188 million. New York attorney...

Gaining Clarity on Execs' Pay: A majority of financial executives-82% of 230 polled-support some kind of SEC guidance on executive compensation.(post-employment agreement on compensation)(Brief article)
October 1, 2006... 64% said companies should explicitly report post-employment agreement on compensation (i.e., golden parachutes) 58% said companies should explicitly report the dollar value of all non-cash and non-stock compensation and benefits greater...

Email Archiving: Banks' New Quandary: Retain or Destroy?: Storing relevant email is no longer irrelevant. In a recent survey, 24 percent of firms said they were legally required to produce employee email. Banks need to be prepared.
October 1, 2006... Morgan Stanley's whopping $15 million fine last summer for email retention failures and Merrill Lynch's $2.5 million punishment earlier this year for not promptly producing requested emails have put banks on notice. And just about every month...

Encryption: Protecting Laptops Is Now Affordable, Easy: The risk assessment is in: encryption costs a few hundred dollars per laptop. That's a bargain, given that one data breach can cost millions, not to mention a career.
October 1, 2006... If the "don't want to end up on the front page of The Wall Street Journal" syndrome isn't enough to motivate chief information security officers to encrypt laptops, how about the fear of getting fired? Pedro Cadenas Jr., former CISO of the...

Citi Lives Richly, With Ad Push for Second Half: The banking industry is closely watching its largest player - Citigroup - as its advertising budget ebbs and flows. But will its peers follow the leader?
October 1, 2006... Citigroup, which trimmed its print advertising budget in the first and second quarters, is now ramping up its spending in the second half of 2006, though officials decline to say whether that represents an increase in this year's overall media...

AD Beat: Wachovia 'Wisdom' Breaks Through Clutter of Peer Ads: Forget about the First Union merger. The new agenda for Wachovia's ad campaign is aimed at helping customers make their dreams come true.(Wachovia Bank)
October 1, 2006... When Carl Sneed downed a sufficient number of live stink beetles on "Fear Factor" to claim the $50,000 prize, Wachovia's Private Client Services stepped in to help the college student decide how to invest his nest egg. At the winner's request,...

Pillars Of Progress: Twenty-Five women, Twenty-Five lifetimes of experience, Twenty-Five ways of using their influence to make a difference in banking and beyond.(Marion O. Sandler-Golden West Financial Corp.)(Amy Brinkley-Bank of America)(Heidi Miller-JPMorgan Chase)
October 1, 2006... Top-performing women in banking rely as much on their intuitive skills as they do their analytical ones. While it is the profound effect they have on their businesses that garners them attention professionally, it is what is born of their...

High Achievers.(Sallie Krawcheck- Citigroup)(Amy Brinkley- Bank of America)(Barbara Desoer- Bank of America )
October 1, 2006... TOP 5 EARNERS 1) Sallie Krawcheck CFO, Citigroup Salary: $500,000 Bonus: $5.28 million Total cash compensation: $5.8 million* 2) Amy Brinkley Global Risk Executive Bank of America Salary: $800,000 ...

Report Card.
October 1, 2006... Which banks have the highest number of corporate officers? PNC Financial Services [A] 25 percent (three out 12 in 2005, four out of 17 in 2002) Bank of America [A] 22 percent (two out of nine in 2005, two out of...

Rising Stars: Despite challenging market forces like the flat-to-inverted yield curve, rising interest rates, stiffer regulation and a growing number of nonbank rivals, these 25 Women to Watch posted results that show they're in charge of their own destiny.(Deanna Oppenheimer- Barclays Bank)(Karen Maidment- BMO Financial group)(Debora Horvath- Washington Mutual)
October 1, 2006... (1) DEANNA OPPENHEIMER CEO, UK Retail Banking, Barclays Bank Deanna Oppenheimer has been the CEO of retail banking at Barclays Bank for only eight months, but she has already put her stamp on the 300-year-old-plus company. When...

Bench Strength.(U.S. Bancorp.)(Wells Fargo & Co.)(Citigroup Inc.)
October 1, 2006... Fine-tuning individual performances is one thing, but coaching superstars to play as a team-capitalizing on opportunities to increase revenue, earnings and shareholder value-is something entirely different. The nagging question pondered by many...

If Earnings Slip in 2007, Training Budgets Will Take the Hit: Due to ongoing demographic forces, community banks are in need of increased training programs like never before, but some observers don't see that happening soon.
October 1, 2006... At a time when community banks probably need to be more serious about employee training, there is concern in some corners that they'll be cutting back in 2007. Industrywide profits are pointing to a weaker year, which is often a prelude to...

Consumer Snag: How to Make Account Openings Easier: Most banks are not sufficiently integrated with health plans to make the process of creating an health savings account a convenient experience for customers. But that can change.
October 1, 2006... For all the rosy scenarios regarding health savings accounts as a way to build bank deposits and help employers and consumers combat rising healthcare, they are running into an unexpected obstacle. Consulting firm Aite Group expects the...

New Industry Index Aims to Quantify The Progress of Corporate Payments: Companies still make most of their payments with paper checks, but new VICOR-commissioned research suggests a major change is afoot. Restless bankers are more than ready.
October 1, 2006... Corporate payments are on the cusp of a major evolution, one that will prompt that part of the business to finally join its retail brethren in the electronic world. For many sources, the progress is long overdue. While most industry...

Eliminating the Waste in the Financial Supply Chain.
October 1, 2006... Over a $100 billion in resources are needlessly consumed worldwide along the financial supply chain. "Float" exists across the entire chain and results in sub-optimal working capital management. Lack of standardization is the root cause of the...

UBS Wants Its Share Of The U.S. Market: With $46 trillion in investable assets, the U.S. is every wealth manager's dream; that figure could hit $62 trillion by 2010. The Swiss wealth manager won't be asking for its part - it'll be taking it, thank you very much.(Mark Sutton)
October 1, 2006... UBS, which claims to be the world's largest wealth manager, this summer opened its first U.S. office in New York dedicated to the ultra-high-net worth segment. While bank officials say that this top segment will not be as big a focus as the...

Defending Attorney-Client Privilege.
October 1, 2006... The attorney-client privilege is under attack from several sides, as government regulators and auditors now routinely demand access to corporate legal files. The problem is particularly acute for financial institutions, which operate under...