US Banker articles from October 2007

US Banker archives from October 2007

This Month.
October 1, 2007... 28 Cover Story: The 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking Women have gained ground in executive management ranks, but not much. They held 17.9 percent of executive positions at the 100 largest nationally charted banks last year, an increase of...

Editor's Note.
October 1, 2007... An item in the "Hits and Has-Beens" column inadvertently misstated a succession at U.S. Bancorp (September 2007). Michael J. Doyle's job as chief credit officer will now be held by two people: P.W. (Bill) Parker and Scott S. Hickey. USB regrets...

Women's Influence is Rising, as are Possibilities.
October 1, 2007... It's a question I've been asked hundreds of times over the past five years: Why rank women executives? The answer is simple: If you look at the low percentage of women in banking's executive ranks, why not examine the influence of top female...

Subprime Woes: Amid the Chaos, Big Banks Are Finding Opportunities: Consumer-lending divisions still under fire.
October 1, 2007... Keane global financial services director Vivek Mehra was chewing the fat with one of his industry contacts in the mortgage-securitization industry when the table talk turned to volatility. With adjustable-rate mortgages, balloons, options,...

Scene and Heard.
October 1, 2007... "We're probably missing out on opportunities that we shouldn't be missing out on. It makes the U.S. less nimble and less competitive." Harvey Pitt, CEO of Kalorama Partners and former chairman of the SEC. (c) 2007 U.S. Banker and...

Privacy Push: Banks Chafe Against Move To Block Use of SS Numbers: Would alternative ID method be too costly?(social security numbers )
October 1, 2007... Two major federal efforts to curb the widespread use of Social Security numbers are putting banks-the largest private-sector users of those nine sensitive numbers-on defense. Social Security numbers are the crucial piece of data used to...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Wachovia Corp. named C. Winston Wilkinson)(Northern Trust Bank/DuPage named Gregg D. Behrens)(TriState Capital named Thomas M. Groneman )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Deutsche Bank taps ex-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan as senior adviser to its corporate and investment-banking unit. Wachovia Corp. names C. Winston Wilkinson, formerly of Fifth Third Bank, to be evp and private-banking director for its...

Fresh Ink.(Bank of America Corp. invested in Countrywide Financial Corp.)(United Community Financial Corp. to acquire PVF Capital Corp.)(First National Bankshares Inc. (Houma, Louisiana) to acquire Carolina National Corp. )(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... 1. Bank of America invested $2 billion in Countrywide Financial Corp. BofA said the market has underestimated Countrywide's value. Analysts said the extra liquidity should assuage investors' concerns and provide a healthy investment for BofA....

Goldman Uses Capital Markets To Pay for Children's Vaccinations.(The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.)
October 1, 2007... Some 27 million children are not vaccinated against the most common childhood diseases, and Goldman Sachs this year is tapping the power of the capital markets to pay for solving the problem. The bank helped the International Finance Facility...

Noted and Noteworthy.(green movement of banks)(outsourcing trends)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... A growing number of large banking institutions, such as Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup, has been at the forefront of the green movement, but how green can community banks claim to be? Miami-based Union Credit Bank is the first U.S....

Doing the Regulatory Revamp Dance: Does the system work or is it hopelessly outdated? Former regulators from the FDIC, OCC and the SEC talk about what changes they'd like to see. In their lifetime, please.(L. William Seidman of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)(Harvey L. Pitt of Securities and Exchange Commission)(Eugene A. Ludwig of Office of the Comptroller of the Currency)
October 1, 2007... The labyrinth of agencies that passes for America's bank-regulatory system is once again under the microscope, but for the first time in decades, it is under serious consideration for reorganization. Three former supervisors recently sounded...

Business Intelligence: Going 'BI-onic' With Lifecycle Profiling: Forget traditional measurements of customer relationships. BI technology relies on analytics and economic modeling to determine a client's value over the cycle of his life.(Wachovia Bank and Trust Co.)
October 1, 2007... When Wachovia wants to know a customer, it doesn't look at his profile. It may sound counterintuitive, but that's how the Charlotte bank's noted Customer Analytics Research and Targeting unit (CART) operates. Forget names, birthdays and...

The Future of Spreadsheets in BI? Excel-Lent.(business intelligence )
October 1, 2007... When business-intelligence platforms reach full maturity, the predictions go, that'll be the end of desktop spreadsheet analytics in enterprises. Turns out, though, there's probably more corporate urgency in finding low-gravity ink pens...

With 'Caveman,' GEICO Hones Its Brand Instincts: The Maryland insurer's gecko is a cute mascot, but it's the caveman icon that has morphed into the real pop culture phenomenon. Will the Neanderthals become global megastars?
October 1, 2007... Who knew cavemen could be so hip and, well... evolved? The 10 moronic GEICO television ads with the tagline, "So easy, a caveman can do it," have spawned an interactive Web site and a TV show on ABC, "Cavemen," to air with Angie Harmon this...

AD Beat: 'Redefining Capital' Aids CIT in Repositioning Itself: How does a financial-services firm design a campaign that will accomplish a myriad of goals? Make it clever. Aim it narrowly. And keep it high-brow. Recipe for success.(CIT Commercial Services Inc.)
October 1, 2007... To define oneself in a largely undifferentiated market, a 100-year-old finance company no one's ever heard of needs more than just a dash of ingenuity and brand savvy. It requires confidence and boldness. CIT, a provider of commercial and...

Five Years.
October 1, 2007... In 2003, seven brave women - NewAlliance's Peyton Patterson, Washington Mutual's Deanna Oppenheimer, Wells Fargo's Doreen Woo Ho, East West Bank's Julia Gouw, CIBC's Susan Storey, University Bank's Rebecca David and Wachovia's Ranjana Clark -...

Perseverance at the Core of Top Performance.(Heidi Miller )(Carrie Tolstedt )(Barbara Desoer)(women bankers)
October 1, 2007... Success in business requires that leaders see the race to the top as a marathon and not a sprint. The most effective leaders have the ability to size up competitors, while also gauging the distance between where they are and where they want to...

2007 Index: The 25 MPWIB.
October 1, 2007... 1 Heidi Miller p40 2 Carrie Tolstedt p43 3 Barbara Desoer p45 4 Cece Sutton p47 5 Doreen Woo Ho p49 6 Pamela Joseph p51 7 Amy Brinkley p51...

2007 Index: The 25 WtoW.
October 1, 2007... 1 Sallie Krawcheck p69 2 Karen Peetz p69 3 Colleen Johnston p71 4 Avid Modjtabai p71 5 Ranjana Clark p73 6 Beth Mooney p73 7 Amy Radin ...

High Five: The Most Influential from 2003 to 2007.
October 1, 2007... Amy Brinkley ***** Ranjana Clark ***** Barbara Desoer ***** Doreen Woo Ho ***** Susan Horton ***** Heidi Miller ***** Patricia Moss ***** Carol Nelson ***** Cece Sutton *****...

Biggest Ranking Jumps.
October 1, 2007... Cece Sutton 36 spots Claudia Slacik 25 spots Karen Lee Hail 21 spots Carol Nelson 20 spots Leila Carr 19 spots (c) 2007 U.S. Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved....

Corporate Officer Report Card.(women executives)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
October 1, 2007... What is the percentage of women corporate officers at the top 10 U.S. banks? Wells Fargo 28.6% (six out of 21 in 2007, three out of 18 in 2003) Bank of America Corp. 25% (two out of eight in 2007, two out of seven in 2003)...

Five Top Earners in 2007.(Barbara Desoer)(Amy Brinkley)(Carrie Toldstedt)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Barbara Desoer Chief Technology and Operations Officer Bank of America Salary: $800,000 Non-equity incentive compensation: $3,575,000 Total compensation: $4,375,000 Amy Brinkley Global Risk Executive Bank of...

Regional Performance: A 5-year look at the geographical concentrations of The 25 MPWIB.(Most Powerful Women in Banking)(Statistical table)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... 2007 West 48% Mid-Atlantic 20% Southeast 12% Midwest 8% Non-U.S. 8% Southwest 4% New England 0% 2006 West 48% Mid-Atlantic 24% ...

The New Establishment.(women bankers)
October 1, 2007... From newcomers to those taking on new assignments, these women's star quality has them front and center. A look at whose influence is gaining ground and growing fastest. 1. SALLIE KRAWCHECK Chairman and CEO, Citi Global Wealth...

Putting Team Dynamics To Work.(U.S. Bancorp. (Minneapolis, Minnesota))(Citigroup Inc. (New York, New York))(Wells Fargo and Co.)
October 1, 2007... When considering executives' performances across a banking enterprise, there is little doubt that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In its second annual ranking of the Top 3 Banking Teams, U.S. Banker examines the effect of gender...

Peer to Peer: They're not bankers, but their prowess in the financial-services field is legendary: Meet the other women who matter.(Zoe Cruz of Morgan Stanley)(Paula Rosput Reynolds of Safeco Insurance Co.)(Susan Ulick of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund)
October 1, 2007... 1 ZOE CRUZ Co-President // Morgan Stanley When it comes to making money and surviving political tumult, Zoe Cruz, co-president of Morgan Stanley, is clearly someone with excellent instincts. She has been at Morgan Stanley...

Nation's Fastest-Growing County Spurs Upstart's Extra Effort: Sure, Scottsdale, AZ, is hot in terms of rising mercury, but it's also heating up as a center of de novo activity. One local startup, Goldwater Bank, is putting itself in a league of its own.(Arizona)
October 1, 2007... Arizona has become a new hotbed of banking, and one startup is making a name for itself with one-of-a-kind customer service. While most community banks tout their personalized service as a refreshing change from that of the big banks,...

En Garde! Banks and PayPal Will Clash: The payments space is prime territory for banks and their non-bank brethren to cross swords, with new offerings constantly on tap. The menace from interlopers like PayPal grows ever greater.(PayPal.com Inc.)
October 1, 2007... Look out, banks: PayPal and its non-bank siblings in payments are gaining. The San Jose, CA-based firm is expanding further into the consumer-payments space and offering more bank-like services. And even though the firm says it is a...

How to Give the Love And Finesse the Cross-Selling: Small businesses want the best service from banks-and they want it cheap. And more banks are more willing to pay for it in redeemable points. Just add cross-selling.
October 1, 2007... The newest trend in small-business loyalty relationships may carry the rather bland moniker of "enterprise awards" or "enterprise loyalty," but the terms belie the importance of the one-two punch in perfectly grooming a group for cross-selling....

'Money Goes to Money.' But Can Banks Get That Right?: U.S. banks like Wachovia, Bank of America and Fifth Third are beefing up their wealth-management divisions, while smaller banks rely on deep relationships to keep going strong. Which strategy is right?
October 1, 2007... A number of U.S. banks are beefing up their wealth-management divisions. And that has prompted questions from some corners about whether that strategy is in the best interests of customers, or if the drive for size is fueled by nothing more...

Using Banker 'Common Sense' To Predict Loan Defaults.
October 1, 2007... Amid the recent financial-market volatility, a damaging undercurrent of industry complacency came into view as financing institutions were blindsided by the visible threat of increased default levels and exposure. For middle-market...