American Banker articles from June 2005

American Banker archives from June 2005

A Chicago Bank Re-Ups In Small Biz.
June 1, 2005... Taylor Capital Group Inc. is picking its battles in the Chicago market. Instead of vying for retail business by building a huge branch network and doing a lot of consumer banking promotions, Taylor has fine-tuned its operations to be more...

LandAmerica CEO: No Need To Diversify.
June 1, 2005... LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.'s new chief executive says he sees little reason to join other title insurers in diversifying beyond real estate services. Theodore L. Chandler said he is confident mortgage volume will remain healthy -- in...

Is Citi Mulling Freer Rein For Online?(Citigroup Inc.)(Company Profile)(Product/Service Evaluation)
June 1, 2005... BOSTON -- Citigroup Inc.'s success in using the Internet to pick up customers its branch network does not reach has some observers talking about whether Citi might give its online banking business more operational autonomy. Such a shift...

FHLBs Now Sing Praise Of Housing Set-Asides: Would a similar fund for Fannie, Freddie be solution or socialism?(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2005... WASHINGTON -- To listen to Federal Home Loan bank executives discuss the affordable-housing program now, it would be easy to think they always supported it. When it was created in 1989 after the savings and loan scandal, the idea of...

Executive Changes.
June 1, 2005... MIDWEST Fifth Third Bank of Cincinnati has hired Clifford Perry 3d as a senior vice president of community development. He will oversee Community Reinvestment Act compliance, diversity efforts, and community development projects in...

City National Loan Quality Won't Slip, Executive Says.
June 1, 2005... Amid industrywide pressure to compromise on commercial loan terms and pricing, the new head of commercial lending at City National Corp. of Beverly Hills said its "relationship banking" strategy would continue to set it apart from competitors....

HMDA Data Shows No Bias, Law Firm Concludes.(Traiger & Hinckley LLP study)(Home Mortgage Disclosure Act )(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2005... WASHINGTON -- A New York law firm says its way of slicing mortgage-lending data shows little discrepancy by race in subprime lending, despite community group analyses to the contrary. The study, by Traiger & Hinckley LLP, examined data on...

IN BRIEF: Citizens South Buying Church Lender.(Trinity Bank)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Citizens South Banking Corp. in Gastonia, N.C., is buying the $150 million-asset Trinity Bank in Monroe, N.C., for $35.5 million. The deal, which was announced last week and is expected to close in the fourth quarter, would be the first in...

IN BRIEF: Vail of Colo. Revamps Board Committees.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Under threat of a Nasdaq stock delisting, a Colorado banking company has dismissed three of its executives from the board's compensation and nominating committees. The $687 million-asset Vail Banks Inc. in Avon said last week that it did...

IN BRIEF: Follow Sarbanes-Oxley, Pitt Advises CUs.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt called on credit unions to comply with the comprehensive audit and disclosure requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, even though credit unions are not publicly traded. ...

Largest General-Purpose Credit Card Issuers in the U.S.: At yearend. Ranked by outstandings.(Illustration)
June 1, 2005... (part 1 of 3) 1 JPMorgan Chase* 2 Citigroup 3 MBNA America 4 American Express 5 Bank of America 6 Capital One 7 Discover 8 HSBC Bank 9 Providian 10 Wells Fargo ...

Strategy or Matter Of Necessity in First Data Shift?
June 1, 2005... OMAHA -- In the past year the credit card processing giant First Data Corp. has won some large merchant private-label contracts but also lost major bank customers to a rival, Total System Services Inc. As a result, First Data's card...

AIG Restates Profit by $3.9B.
June 1, 2005... We are not authorized to publish this article provided by Bloomberg News. (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Wells' Melding with Strong Starts Paying Off.
June 1, 2005... Some snickered when Wells Fargo & Co. agreed last year to buy Strong Financial Corp.'s assets. The San Francisco banking company bet that it could make the Milwaukee fund company a viable part of its mutual fund family, but observers saw...

IN BRIEF: Drop in Home Prices Possible, Study Says.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Rising mortgage interest rates this year could lower home prices between 6.5% and 15.5%, a study by a Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago economist found. If mortgage rates jump from 5.8% to 6.5% by the fourth quarter, home prices could drop...

Synovus Agrees to Connect Image Archive to Viewpointe's.
June 1, 2005... Synovus Financial Corp. of Columbus, Ga., has become the first multibank holding company to link its in-house check image archive with the one used by Viewpointe Archive Services LLC's 11 customer banks. The $25.1 billion-asset Synovus is...

IN BRIEF: USAA Agrees to Issue Amex Cards.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... USAA Federal Savings Bank of San Antonio will become the third U.S. bank to issue American Express Co. cards and is no longer a defendant in Amex's antitrust lawsuit. Amex said Tuesday that USAA will start issuing Amex credit and charge...

IN BRIEF: ABA Wants a Quicker Update to Basel I.(federal regulators asked to speed up changes to Basel I)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The American Bankers Association has asked federal banking regulators to speed up planned changes to the Basel I capital rules. The changes, which would lead to a so-called Basel 1.5, are meant to keep small banks competitive with the...

IN BRIEF: MasterCard Hires 3 for Commercial Unit.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... MasterCard International will announce today that it has hired three senior vice presidents, all of them veterans of American Express Co., to run a new commercial payments unit. Elena Carroll, who joined MasterCard from Webster Bank of...

Regions Selling 112 Buildings to REIT.
June 1, 2005... Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., has agreed to sell 112 properties, including branches, under a partial leaseback agreement, continuing a cost-cutting initiative tied to its purchase of Union Planters Corp. last June. American...

Talks on Sale of TD Unit To Ameritrade Confirmed.
June 1, 2005... Toronto-Dominion Bank and Ameritrade Holding Corp. confirmed Tuesday that they were discussing a possible deal for TD's U.S. discount broker -- a deal that observers said could advance the Canadian bank's ambitions in banking here. Though...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2005... A page 1 story Tuesday about Doral Financial misstated its problems. While Doral is in default of debt covenants, it is not under a 60-day deadline to repay or in a liquidity crisis. As the story said, it has cash sufficient to meet its...

Do Nixed CU Conversions Suggest a Larger Pattern?(credit unions)
June 2, 2005... A decision by the industry's federal regulator to quash conversion votes at two Texas credit unions could have a chilling effect on credit unions interested in becoming banks, lawyers and consultants say. In a span of two weeks last month...

Pipeline.
June 2, 2005... Fannie Eases Some Rules On Insurance Fannie Mae, which has been losing market share and is under increasing pressure to help lower-income homebuyers, plans to significantly cut mortgage insurance requirements on a product suite aimed at...

Handicapping the Race For Oxley Chairman Seat.(Michael G. Oxley)
June 2, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Maneuvering has begun among Republicans to succeed Rep. Michael G. Oxley as the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. With the Ohio Republican's six-year term at the head of the panel set to expire in January...

Wachovia, Citi Talk of Return to M&A Market.
June 2, 2005... Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp. are sounding more acquisitive these days. In presentations on Wednesday, top executives at both companies dropped hints to investors on what to expect. Charles O. Prince, the chief executive of New...

Mudd Named Fannie CEO.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... The GSE's chairman defended the choice, while some said the board will regret choosing the former GE exec over an outsider. Story on page 10 (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com...

Colonial President Quits; Chairman Seen Taking Job.
June 2, 2005... W. Flake Oakley 4th, who played a pivotal role in Colonial BancGroup Inc.'s acquisition-driven growth during his nearly two decades there, has stepped down as the president of the Montgomery, Ala., company and its Colonial Bank. His...

B of A Terminates Store-Branch Deal In St. Louis Area.
June 2, 2005... Bank of America Corp. will shed more than a third of its branches in the St. Louis area by the end of the year after a decision not to renew its in-store banking relationship with Schnuck Markets Inc. Bank of America spokeswoman Diane...

Executive Changes.
June 2, 2005... Midwest Citizens Banking Corp. of Flint, Mich., has made Stephen Figliuolo its corporate risk officer and Jeffrey A. Powell its controller and principal accounting officer. Mr. Figliuolo, an executive vice president, was the manager of...

Lender Group Builds Its Own Small-Business Credit Bureau.
June 2, 2005... With the small-business lending market heating up, demand for the data needed to make credit decisions is growing. But some small-business lenders do not want to replicate the credit bureau model of consumer lending, in which the data they...

MC, MBNA Aim For Growth on Commercial Side.
June 2, 2005... Two credit card giants are gearing up to capture more of the commercial market. MasterCard International says its new commercial payments group plans to beat out American Express Co. as the leader in business cards. Meanwhile, MBNA Corp....

In Brief: Zurich's Planned Notes Rated.(Zurich Finance (USA) Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... A.M. Best Co. Wednesday assigned an indicative rating of a-minus to the subordinated notes that Zurich Finance (USA) Inc. plans to issue with a guarantee from Zurich Insurance Co. The rating outlook is stable, the Oldwick, N.J., ratings...

In Brief: Wells Trims Fund-Trade Fees.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... Wells Fargo & Co. announced Wednesday that it is extending the commission price war in the brokerage industry to long-term investors in no-load mutual funds. Transaction fees on Internet no-load mutual fund trades for customers with Wells...

B of A Consolidates Funds, Picks Columbia Name.(Bank of America Corp.)
June 2, 2005... Bank of America Corp.'s asset management arm is consolidating the mutual funds it acquired with FleetBoston Financial Corp. last year and adopting Fleet's Columbia brand name for the unified fund family. Keith Banks, the president of...

Foreign Holding Companies That Majority-Own U.S. Banks: Ranked by deposits of those banks on Dec. 31, 2004. Dollars in thousands.(Illustration)
June 2, 2005... (part 1 of 3) Rank Foreign holding company 1 HSBC Holdings PLC* London 2 Royal Bank of Scotland Group* Edinburgh 3 ABN Amro* Amsterdam 4 Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group* 5 ...

Fannie Mae Selects Interim Chief Mudd as CEO.
June 2, 2005... WASHINGTON -- After cleaning house in recent months and pledging to reform everything from its earnings to its attitude, Fannie Mae chose Daniel H. Mudd on Wednesday to be its president and chief executive. A five-year veteran of the...

In Brief: PayPal Offers a Web Site for Spaniards.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... PayPal Inc., the San Jose payments subsidiary of the online auction giant eBay Inc., has opened a Web site for customers in Spain. PayPal.es is written in Spanish for a local audience and uses euros as the default currency, PayPal said...

In Brief: Citizens of R.I. Hires Message Provider.(Citizens Financial Group Inc.)(EnvoyWorldWide Inc.)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... Citizens Financial Group Inc., the Providence, R.I., retail banking arm of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, is working with EnvoyWorldWide Inc. of Bedford, Mass., to deliver automated telephone messages to some customers. EnvoyWorldWide...

In Brief: MnIPC Expands Credit Union Offerings.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... Minnesota Item Processing Corp. has added branch-capture and image-return features to its check-image offerings for credit unions. Peter A. Skaalen, the chief operating officer for both the item-processing outsourcing company and its...

In Brief: Fiserv: 49 Start-Up Clients in 12 Months.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... The Brookfield, Wis., banking technology and outsourcing provider Fiserv Inc. said it has landed a string of customers for its core processing services. Fiserv said Tuesday that it has signed up 49 start-up banks and thrifts in the past 12...

No Timetable on Broad Rollout For Consumer Biometric Tools.
June 2, 2005... BOSTON -- Despite Citigroup Inc.'s deployment of fingerprint authentication for branch employees, observers are unsure when banking companies will encourage widespread consumer use of biometric technology. Catherine Palmieri, the director...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
June 2, 2005... In the May 26 paper, a partial quotation in a page 19 story should have been explained better. UBS analyst Glenn Schorr, quoted as having written that Mellon needs to do "a few more small add-on deals" to bolster its asset management business,...

In Brief: Dimon: JPM Would Buy Only Big Brokers.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... James Dimon, the president and chief operating officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said that if it were ever to acquire a retail brokerage business, it would have to be a large one. "Please do not call me and offer me a retail brokerage...

In Brief: Independence Federal Cancels Meeting.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... Three weeks after it cut short and rescheduled its annual meeting, Independence Federal Savings Bank in Washington, D.C., said it has been postponed indefinitely. The black-owned thrift is locked in a proxy battle with its largest...

In Brief: FDIC Reminder on Background Checks.(Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a reminder to banks on Wednesday about its guidelines for employee background checks. The communication followed reports in May that New Jersey officials had accused former employees of Bank of...

Rise in Short-Term Rates Seen Crimping North Fork.
June 2, 2005... Some analysts are changing their opinion about North Fork Bancorp Inc.'s readiness to deal with the continued rise in short-term interest rates. A month ago analyst Mark Fitzgibbon of Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP told American Banker that...

In Brief: Dominion Details U.S. Bond Ratings.(Brief Article)
June 2, 2005... Dominion Bond Rating Service Ltd. said it has rated over $100 billion of U.S. asset-backed and residential mortgage-backed transactions since opening its New York office in March of last year. The Toronto ratings agency said Tuesday that...

N.C. City's Makeover a Pooled Effort.(Rocky Mount)
June 3, 2005... Downtown Rocky Mount, N.C., has seen better days. Home to a thriving tobacco exchange and a prominent railroad junction a century ago, Rocky Mount's downtown now consists of a smattering of sleepy stores surrounded by rundown and boarded-up...

Supermarket Model Not Dead But Advancing.
June 3, 2005... Reports that Citigroup Inc. may be considering selling its asset management unit to Legg Mason Inc. renewed speculation that the financial supermarket -- once thought to be the wave of the future -- is rapidly approaching obsolescence. ...

Minimum-Payment Shift Could Weigh on Issuers.
June 3, 2005... Big credit card issuers are downplaying the cost of tightening minimum monthly payments, but bottom lines will be hit in the coming quarters as outstanding balances shrink and troubled loans are exposed and, in some cases, written off. The...

Citi to Buy $6.6B Cards Portfolio from Federated.
June 3, 2005... In a deal that would extend its lead in the retailer card market, Citigroup Inc. has agreed to buy $6.6 billion of private-label and Visa receivables from Federated Department Stores Inc. Citi agreed to pay an 11.5% premium for the...

People.
June 3, 2005... @by#By Barbara A. Rehm, Matthias Rieker, and Paul Davis Thanks Anyway As the chief executive of Citigroup Inc., Chuck Prince gets a lot of advice -- some of it not exactly welcome. Speaking Wednesday at an investor conference, Mr....

IN BRIEF: Amcore of Illinois Under OCC Order.
June 3, 2005... Amcore Financial Inc. of Rockford, Ill., has entered into a written agreement with the office of the Comptroller of the Currency to develop a consumer compliance program. The $5 billion-asset company revealed in a Securities and Exchange...

IN BRIEF: Wilshire of L.A. Sets Up in Dallas.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Wilshire Bancorp Inc. of Los Angeles announced Thursday that it had opened its first branch outside of the Los Angeles area. The full-service branch is in Dallas, where the $1.4 billion-asset Los Angeles company has operated a loan...

IN BRIEF: ACB Adds 26 Banks To Nasdaq Index.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... America's Community Bankers has added 26 banks to its Nasdaq bank index. The index, which was started in December 2003, includes more than 500 banks and thrifts listed on Nasdaq. It excludes the 50 largest banks and thrifts and any bank...

Start-Up Team Seeking Control Lost After Buyout.
June 3, 2005... Top executives at a bank acquired by North Valley Bancorp last year have decided to start their own bank. North Valley, in Redding, Calif., bought Yolo Community Bank of Woodland, Calif., in April 2004, and then let its former management...

Next in Line on Senate Panel, A 'Catalyst' for Bills, Deals.
June 3, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, an ally of insurance companies and a foe of credit card issuers, is the overwhelming favorite to take the Senate Banking Committee's top Democratic slot when it opens in early 2007. Sen....

Chase Offers Payments Consulting to Billers.
June 3, 2005... JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s merchant acquiring unit is offering a service designed to help billers save money by managing customers' electronic payments and steering people to cheaper payment channels. Thanassis G. Mazarakis, the president of...

Data Monitor for Mich.'s Community.(Community Bank of Dearborn)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Community Bank of Dearborn of Michigan is using a network monitoring device from the Mountain View, Calif., risk management hardware vendor Reconnex Corp. to protect sensitive data. Reconnex said Tuesday that Community Bank tested some of...

Shuffle Reflects Merrill M&A Plan.
June 3, 2005... Merrill Lynch & Co.'s reassignment of its top retail executive to a newly created job, heading acquisitions, is consistent with plans it has touted to do more deals, analysts said. On Wednesday the New York company said that James P....

IN BRIEF: St. Paul Travelers Fills Field Marketing Job.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... St. Paul Travelers said Thursday that it had hired Kathleen L. Preston to be an executive vice president, field marketing, a newly created post that reports to president and chief executive officer Jay Fishman. She is to head the regional...

IN BRIEF: Manulife China Unit Opens Site in 5th City.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Manulife-Sinochem Life Insurance Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp., the world's fifth-largest life insurance company, opened its doors Thursday to business in Foshan -- the fifth city in China where it now does...

IN BRIEF: Pru Web Site to Educate Plan Participants.(Prudential Retirement)(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Prudential Retirement announced Thursday that it has started Signature Online, a Web-based education center that offers retirement plan participants information meant to help them achieve retirement security. The online center -- which...

IN BRIEF: MassMutual's Minimum Benefit Guarantee.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has enhanced the guaranteed minimum accumulation benefit, or GMAB, on its Transition Select variable annuities by offering customers the chance to lock in accumulated growth in their contract values. ...

Exception Pricing Can Get You in Trouble.
June 3, 2005... News that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is investigating the practices of some prominent mortgage lenders could prove to be a harbinger of increased scrutiny of other bank products and services. Mr. Spitzer's current investigation...

Letters To The Editor: Environment Focus Will Pay Off for JPM.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... To the Editor: Over the course of the past three years, a group of institutional investors with over $235 billion in assets under management led by Christian Brothers Investment Services encouraged JPMorgan Chase to strengthen its risk...

Letters To The Editor: FDIC Understates Bank Role in Payday.(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... To the Editor: The FDIC took a hit in the recent CBS "60 Minutes" story on payday lending ["Washington People," May 23, page 3]. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper correctly assigned responsibility to the FDIC for allowing its...

Letters To The Editor: Visa Surcharge Policy Benefits Both Sides.(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... To the Editor: As national spokeswoman and chairwoman of Americans for Consumer Education and Competition, I read with great interest Lavonne Kuykendall's May 18 article on the Atlanta retailer lawsuit challenging Visa's surcharge policy...

Letters To The Editor: Overdraft Plan Rule Needs Clarification.(Letter to the Editor)
June 3, 2005... To the Editor: The May 26 article "No One Happy About Overdraft Disclosure Rule" [page 3] took an accurate pulse on the May 19 overdraft program marketing rule and its effect on bank compliance costs. The rule, demanded by consumer...

Catch of the Day: A Handy Marketing Tool.
June 3, 2005... My favorite anthropologist, Jimmy Buffett, in his learned work "Don't Chu-Know" made the observation, "We're just recycled history machines -- cavemen in faded blue jeans." The theory I believe Professor Buffett poses is that we have hard-wired...

Fund Managers: Condo-Hotel Crash Coming.
June 3, 2005... We are not authorized to publish this article provided by Dow Jones. (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Home Prices Up Again in Britain.
June 3, 2005... We are not authorized to publish this article provided by Bloomberg News. (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Starwood Capital Forming Hotel Funds.
June 3, 2005... We are not authorized to publish this article provided by Bloomberg News. (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Merrill, Lone Star to Buy Dresdner Loans.
June 3, 2005... We are not authorized to publish this article provided by Bloomberg News. (c) 2005 American Banker and SourceMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.americanbanker.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
June 3, 2005... In Thursday's paper, a page 1 story misstated the requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on high-leverage mortgages. They cannot buy loans with loan-to-value ratios higher than 80% without insurance or other credit enhancement. In...

IN BRIEF: CEO Aims to Make Fannie Mae 'Humbler'.
June 3, 2005... Fannie Mae's chief executive officer, Daniel Mudd, said Thursday that its culture has been "too slow, too bureaucratic," and that shareholders have not "always been at the center of the equation." Speaking on a conference call with...

IN BRIEF: Huntington in $7.5M Settlement with SEC.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Huntington Bancshares' troubles with the regulators came to a resolution Thursday as the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a settlement of its formal investigation into certain financial accounting issues. In a settlement...

IN BRIEF: Wachovia, Slaves in Past, Apologizes.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Wachovia Corp. issued an apology after research unearthed that two predecessor banks had owned slaves before the Civil War. The Charlotte company disclosed Wednesday that Georgia Railroad and Banking Co. owned at least 162 slaves, and that...

IN BRIEF: Freddie Mac Exec on ARM Product Plans.(Brief Article)
June 3, 2005... Freddie Mac plans later this year to buy option adjustable-rate mortgages that allow for negative amortization in bulk from more lenders and to introduce a standard option ARM product in mid-2006, an executive said Thursday. James Cotton,...

Genpass, KeyCorp in ATM Access Deal.
June 3, 2005... KeyCorp's fee-free automated teller machine network has just had a growth spurt -- with help from Genpass Inc. Since 2001, KeyCorp has been offering its own network of 2,200 ATMs to smaller agent banks, 140 of which now use the program....

Another Warning from Dimon Leads to JPM Estimate Cuts.
June 3, 2005... Several analysts substantially reduced earnings estimates for JPMorgan Chase & Co. Thursday, a day after its president, James Dimon, warned that the company will probably report dismal second-quarter trading revenue. With the rush to trim...

Capital One's Experiment In 'Flat' Fees.
June 6, 2005... To capitalize on consumer angst about complex pricing, Capital One Financial Corp. has been quietly testing a credit card that substitutes a flat fee for interest. Capital One began offering the flat-fee card in February to prospects with...

New Direction for Reg B?: Rules' critics hopeful about SEC nominee.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
June 6, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The leadership change at the Securities and Exchange Commission could have a big impact on which broker-dealer activities banks are allowed to conduct directly. SEC Chairman William H. Donaldson announced Wednesday that he...