US Banker articles from September 2008

US Banker archives from September 2008

Rants and Raves.(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... The Fannie, Freddie Debacle Excellent commentary that you wrote in this month's U.S. Banker about GSEs. When talking about GSEs morphing from government-sponsored "New Deal" entities with a societal mission to profit-first and...

Managing The Troublesome Twins; Fannie and Freddie have a new, supposedly tougher regulator. But it's by no means certain the agency will be the disciplinarian the GSEs, and the American taxpayer, needs.(The Inside Track - Policy, Players and Politics)(Federal Housing Finance Agency)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk One highly touted feature of the housing legislation signed into law in July is the creation of a tougher regulator to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-the coddled, gargantuan twins of the housing markets, whose poor...

Grid Computing: Taking The Grid Across The Entire Enterprise; As banks become comfortable with grid computing, it's moving to the retail side. The driver is the same. Take a "seven-hour job and make it run in seven minutes".(Fast Forward)(Citigroup Inc.)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By Rebecca Sausner A few years ago Citigroup's Capital Markets division faced a problem that most large trading enterprises were also confronting: an ever-increasing need for processing power to handle the risk management, market...

Let's Make Beautiful Music Together; Financial institutions are turning to music sponsorships to grow their brands and reach certain demographics. Citi, for one, is betting $100 million the strategy will work.(Marketing)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By Anthony Malakian As part of the summer farewell to the old and often maligned Shea stadium, scheduled for demolition at the end of the New York Mets' season, Billy Joel agreed to perform one last concert. For those who wanted a...

AD Beat: Some Respect Please; A hurdle for any small-business is establishing credibility. A new ad campaign, while poking fun at customized cards, argues that using Amex bestows such credibility.(Marketing)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By Anthony Malakian Gaining credibility is critical for small-business success. Potential clients and business partners have to believe the firm's seriousness, expertise and longevity. The shoe-string, garage operation might sound...

Future Shock; The 10 events that rocked the financial industry during the credit crisis, and how the fallout will shape the future of the global financial system.(Cover story)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By John Engen Where to start when trying to figure out how the banking industry got into the mess it's in today? And where, exactly, do we go from here? Most of the past 17 years, post-S&L crisis, was a golden age for banks...

Time for PE Class; Banks need capital. Private equity firms have capital. It gets much harder from there.(M&A Advisor Ranking)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By John Adams There's little appetite among traditional investors to recapitalize banks these days, and no wonder since those who did step up early to help the nation's flailing banks have seen their positions quickly sink...

The Perils Of Crisis Mode; Home equity lenders are hunkering down, and losing opportunities.(Home Equity Lending: Buckling Down without Buckling Under)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By Richard Tambor and Annetta Cortez Home equity lending has been a mainstay of retail banking profitability over the last five years, providing double-digit growth that seemed irresistible in peak market conditions. As housing...

Your Grandfather's Bank And Darn Proud of It; What's old is new again at Sterling National Bank. Continued success in troubled financial times validates the wisdom of this New York City bank's steadfast approach to the business.(Main Street: Community Banking & Finance)(Company overview)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Anthony Malakian Entering the dining room at Sterling National Bank's Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street headquarters in Manhattan, one can't help but feel a wave of nostalgia. The imposing mahogany table, the high-backed wooden chairs,...

Export Opportunities Beckon Smaller Firms; The weak greenback has its advantages, principally the cheaper relative cost of U.S. goods, which has propelled exports; more small businesses, and their banks, are looking to get into the act.(Small Business (Exporting))
September 1, 2008... Byline: Anthony Malakian It may bruise the national ego that the Canadian loonie has pulled even with the U.S. dollar and the euro is trouncing the greenback, but there is a silver lining: America's relatively cheap exports are booming and...

Learning to Monetize Mobile In The Land Down Under; ANZ National and its New Zealand competitors are actually making money on mobile banking. Is the revenue model transferable to the U.S. market, or is the freebie genie out of the bottle?(Consumer Finance (Mobile Banking))
September 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner There's no shortage of hype surrounding mobile banking, and there is even some impressive early consumer adoption. But what's been sorely lacking in U.S. deployments is a revenue model; so far, the channel's been a...

Want a Deep Bench? Do The Right Thing By Staffers. Attracting and retaining top talent is vital to competing in today's business environment. U.S. Banker's Best Banks to Work For, a new ranking to debut next year, will list those organizations that are standouts in the field.(Commentary)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Holly Sraeel, Editor-in-Chief Banks understand that an institution's greatest asset is its people. How employees feel about their organization affects loyalty, performance, culture and the ability of the institution to attract and...

Is Compensation a Villain Of the Credit Crisis?(OpEd)
September 1, 2008... Byline: By Brian Dunn, President of McLagan, a subsidiary of Aon Corp. In this current crisis, pain is widespread and where there is pain, there is a search for villains. As a result, there is likely to be broad and deep investigation into...

Breaking Up is Hard to Do; It's possible that the government's package of measures will keep Fannie and Freddie from the abyss, but that should not stop Congress from the real task at hand: nationalize, downsize and sell them off.(The Economy)(Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp)(Federal National Mortgage Association)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk Socializing losses and privatizing profits is not the way free market capitalism is supposed to work, and yet that's what the country faces thanks to the government's now explicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie...

Real Estate: After Job Cuts, Banks Start To Dump Office Space; 3.7 million more square feet in NYC alone.(Front and Center)
September 1, 2008... Byline: John Adams With banks shedding tens of thousands of jobs, many markets are bracing for a flood of available commercial space as leases are not renewed and banks try to sublease and avoid paying rent on empty cubicles. Office...

Scene and Heard.(Front and Center)
September 1, 2008... "To me that's what's wrong with the whole system. They only care about themselves and don't care about the institution ." Louis Cappelli, CEO of Sterling National Bank on the lack of leadership at Bear Stearns and the need for committed,...

Regulation: Dealt a Bad Hand; Enforcing Internet gambling law will fall to banks.(Front and Center)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Anthony Malakian This fall the House Fi-nancial Services Committee is finally expected to release its regulations for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was signed into law in 2006; banks are anxiously awaiting...

Hits and Has-Beens.(Front and Center)(Wachovia Corp's Donald Truslow plans to retire)(JPMorgan Chase and Co. has appointed Norma Corio)(TCF Financial Corp's Lynn Nagorske id retiring)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Wachovia's chief risk officer, Donald Truslow, announced his intention to retire at the age of 50 just days after the bank revealed its chief financial officer, Thomas J. Wurtz, would be leaving. No successors have yet been named, though newly...

Fresh Ink.(Front and Center)(Community First Bankshares Inc. to acquire Coddle Creek Financial Corp.)(Citadel Bank is bought by UMB Financial Corp.)(Noble Community Bank's merger with Highlands State Bank)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Bluefield, VA's First Community Bancshares Inc., which has $2 billion in assets, is buying North Carolina-based Coddle Creek Financial Corp., which has $159 million in assets, for $33.1 million. The Citadel Bank, with $89 million in assets,...

Euro Envy.(Word Is...)(banking crisis)
September 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk The reputation of the U.S. as a supercharged economic engine and unapologetic bastion of capitalism has taken its lumps of late. The subprime crisis leading to the credit crisis leading to the banking crisis has more...

Noted and Noteworthy.(Word Is...)
September 1, 2008... Charity Not Usury was the theme last month when Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus announced the launch of MicroFinance Transparency, a organization that will publicize the interest rates charged by microfinance lenders, which are known...