Banking Wire articles from September 2005

Banking Wire archives from September 2005

Technology Divorces: Why So Many CUs Break Up And Then Make Up.
September 1, 2005... RICHMOND, Va. -- More than 100 credit unions took a deep breath and switched to new data processing systems last year. But what's compelling is how many turned back at the last minute, according to Joe Haddon, senior vice president at...

News Briefs: U.S. Central Reports Record Income For Second Quarter.
September 1, 2005... LENEXA, Kan. -- U.S. Central Credit Union reported that net income for the second quarter totaled $22.7 million, compared to $9.3 million from the second quarter of 2004. Total assets were $34.3 billion at the end of the second quarter 2005,...

News Briefs: Thirty-Nine Execs Graduate From Advanced Leadership Program.
September 1, 2005... MADISON, Wis. -- Thirty-nine credit union executives have completed the Advanced Leadership Program at Harvard Business School hosted by the Credit Union Executives Society and the California league. Participants included Gregory Peres of ASCU...

News Briefs: Alliant Donates Nine Gallons Of Ice Cream To Facility.
September 1, 2005... CHICAGO -- Alliant CU donated nine gallons of leftover ice cream to a local non-profit facility that helps developmentally disabled children and adults. The ice cream was leftover from an employee ice cream social that the CU refers to as...

News Briefs: Illegal Immigrant Allowed To Retrieve $31,700 He Had Buried.
September 1, 2005... GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- A Mexican citizen who was being deported was permitted to return to his home to retrieve $31,700 he had saved and buried in a glass jar in his yard. Over a seven-year period, Cristobal Chavez Torres saved the money in $100...

CUs In Pittsburgh, Detroit Take To The Airwaves With TV Advertising.
September 1, 2005... PITTSBURGH -- Credit unions are taking to the airwaves in two major markets. In Pittsburgh, five area credit unions are jointly backing a six-month campaign that includes TV ads promoting shared services. The six-month campaign will...

Coastal CU Shares How It Grew Its Member Investment, Trust Services.
September 1, 2005... CHICAGO -- Deciding to offer members investment and trust services is just the first decision a credit union must make. The second, and sometimes bigger question, is how committed to be to the program. In remarks before CUNA Mutual Group's...

Affinity FCU Seeks To Turn Viewers Into Readers With New Magazine.
September 1, 2005... BASKING RIDGE, N. J. -- Nearly every credit union in the country routinely mails monthly newsletters with member statements that detail new car loan drives or the usual financial services. Affinity Federal Credit Union had long been among...

Eye On The Competition.
September 1, 2005... California Bank Secures First Customer For Univeral Payment ID Code SAN FRANCISCO-Union Bank of California secured its first customer on the Universal Payment Identification Code, an account identifier for electronic payments. Coastline...

After 2004's Storms, 1 Florida CU Has Made Changes.
September 1, 2005... BOCA RATON, Fla. -- For most of Labor Day weekend in 2004, the Boca Raton office for IBM Southeast FCU wasn't in operation. Hurricane Frances was set to come ashore somewhere in the Palm Beach County area with winds blasting from 120 to 145...

Kern Schools Using Tech To Enhance Wealth Mngmt.
September 2, 2005... BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A well-oiled wealth-management program runs on a wealth of technology, from automated financial plans to mobile computing, according to Larry Braley, program manager of Investment and Insurance Services at Kerns Schools...

Product & Service.
September 2, 2005... Guardian CU Selects BLS HALES CORNERS, Wis.-Corporate Central Credit Union's CUSO, Business Lending Services, LLC and Guardian Credit Union, West Milwaukee, Wis. have finalized an agreement to provide a commercial lending solution to allow...

NCUA Shutters Pennsylvania CU.
September 2, 2005... LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -- NCUA has liquidated Lock Haven Area FCU and transferred its 3,300 members' accounts to Horizon FCU in nearby Williamsport, Penn. Lock Haven Area FCU had $11 million in assets and was losing money at a rapid pace, the agency...

'Hey, That's My Car'.
September 2, 2005... CHENANGO, N.Y. -- A long-time member of Visions FCU stepped out of the credit union and looked around the parking lot for his car. Trouble was, James Smith's champagne-colored 1993 New Yorker wasn't there. A few minutes later 87-year-old...

How Ireland's CUs Are Answering Three Questions About Volunteers.
September 2, 2005... ROME -- There are three questions to be asked when it comes to credit union volunteers, according to one person: Do we know how to recruit volunteers? Do we know how to retain them? And how do we know they will be any good? Samuel Adair,...

What Board Research Has Found.
September 2, 2005... ROME -- Non-U.S.-based credit unions were exposed to some of the most extensive research and analysis done on boards of directors by The Credit Union Executives' Society. CUES' research found the highest board member satisfaction in...

The Whistle-Blower: How Could A Fraud The Size of Enron Occur? Ex-Insider Shares Account.
September 2, 2005... ROME, Italy -- Does your credit union take comfort in having a code of conduct in place? So did Enron. In remarks before the World Council's World Conference here, at which the group unveiled its first set of operating principles, former...

10 CUs Awarded $450K In Tech Assistance Grants.
September 2, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department said it awarded 10 credit unions a total of $450,000 in technical assistance grants under its Community Development Financial Institutions Program. Credit unions have been among the biggest participants in...

Ex-NCUA Exec Could Get $1M In Back Pay.
September 2, 2005... WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court ordered NCUA to reinstate a long-time executive for improper termination in 2000 and ordered the federal agency to pay him as much as $1 million in back pay. In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

Eight People Banned From Working At CUs.
September 2, 2005... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A former teller supervisor was banned from credit unions by NCUA for stealing funds from at least 20 senior citizen members, most of them in their 70s and 80s, at Kern FCU. Dorothy Jean Rogers was convicted of embezzlement...

Summit CU's 'Quick Money' Takes Aim At Payday Loan Customers.
September 6, 2005... MADISON, Wis. -- Summit Credit Union recently launched a program to help members caught up in the spiral of payday lending debt. Called Quick Money, it provides an immediate line of credit up to $1,500 for members to borrow against at 29.9%...

Payday Lenders Adopt Ethics.
September 6, 2005... WASHINGTON -- The Financial Services Centers of America (FSCA), the trade association for payday lenders and check-cashing stores, has announced a new code of ethics. Included in the 14-point code of conduct and new financial literacy brochure...

Shared Branching Univ. Opens.
September 6, 2005... BOULDER CITY, Nev. -- The Texas Credit Union Service Centers (TCUSC) is joining with MyDAS, a subsidiary of Liberty, to introduce a Shared Branching University. The effort will provide high-demand educational resources to assist in staff...

Whaadayalookinat? Philadelphia Federal's Latest Creative, Of Course.
September 6, 2005... PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia Federal Credit Union has rolled out the third phase of an in-your-face marketing campaign aimed at raising its profile. Using radio, billboards and wrapped buses and bus shelters, the latest ads are part of the...

Brand Effort's Aim To Boost Growth.
September 6, 2005... AUSTIN, Texas -- The $350-million United Heritage CU is making some branding changes to make itself more appealing to members and prospects. Jenny Laudadio, marketing director at the 58,000-member credit union, said that the changes are...

A Religious Calling: NAFCU's New Chairman Has Put Down Roots In Credit Unions (And Found Surprises In The Family Tree).
September 6, 2005... ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The new chairman of the NAFCU Board has a heart-felt passion for the credit union movement. "Credit unions are like religion to me, man, I love it," said Mike Vadala, the CEO of The Summit FCU, who was elected chairman of...

Town Halls Complete, Maryland, DC League Members Voting On Merger.
September 6, 2005... COLUMBIA, Md. -- Now that the Town Hall meetings on the proposed merger of the Maryland and Washington, D.C. leagues are complete, ballots are being sent out for member credit unions to vote on the union. Two-thirds of the affiliated...

Eye On The Competition.
September 6, 2005... Bank Offers Music Downloads PORTLAND, Ore.-Hoping to get customers to stick around a little bit longer, Umpqua Bank started a new service that allows Internet access to download original music created by local musicians. New account...

Federation Supporting New Latino Group.
September 6, 2005... NEW YORK CITY -- The National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions is supporting the development of a new trade association, the National Association of Latino Credit Union Professionals (NALCUP). Support for the new...

Ignorance Is Bliss? No, Says Michigan League.
September 6, 2005... SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- Research conducted by the Michigan league has found that for all the direct mail pieces, lobby brochures and member newsletters that go out, the message just isn't registering with consumers that many credit unions do offer...

NAFCU Blasts NASCUS Over Anti-Tax Lobbying.
September 7, 2005... ARLINGTON, Va. -- In an extraordinary letter that underscores the ongoing antipathy between credit union lobbying groups, NAFCU disparaged recent congressional testimony by NASCUS over the unrelated business income tax, known as UBIT, and...

CUNA Still Cultivating Congressional Leaders.
September 7, 2005... WASHINGTON -- CUNA continued to guide campaign funding towards congressional leaders last month, with campaign contributions going to so-called leadership PACs like: Leadership PAC 2006 ($5,000); The Bluegrass Committee ($5,000); The Freedom...

People.
September 7, 2005... Credit Union Service Network, Denver, Colo., named Doug Burke CEO. Wheatland Federal Credit Union, Lancaster, Penn., promoted Kathy L. Rye to CEO. Alaska USA Federal Credit Union, Anchorage, named Tim Holtrop manger of its Thrashers...

The CU Journal Daily.
September 7, 2005... Cash-Deliverer Confesses To Theft KISSIMMEE, Fla.-An armored truck guard was arrested and charged with staging a fake robbery of $250,000 cash as he was making a delivery to Central Florida Educators' FCU Monday. The guard, identified...

Becker Outlines A Change In Tactics At NAFCU.
September 7, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- The time has come for credit unions to do more than just defend the movement's tax exemption-it's time to go on the offensive and focus on regulatory reform, according to NAFCU CEO Fred Becker. During his opening remarks at...

Notes from NAFCU.
September 7, 2005... 'Old Blue Eyes' Visits NAFCU LAS VEGAS-Its not every day Frank Sinatra makes an appearance at a credit union conference...unless it is here in the city where legends live on even after their death. Instead of a dry update on the status...

Charities Benefit From CU Checking.
September 7, 2005... SALEM, Ore. -- The Marion and Polk Schools CU has developed a new checking account that will benefit the area's non-profit charities. The "Community Interest" account will allow the credit union member to choose to send interest earned on...

Stationery Lands Robber In Jail.
September 7, 2005... FORT MYER, Fla. -- A robber was tracked down because of his choice of stationery. The suspect, identified as Edward Braxton, 38, entered a branch of Suncoast Schools FCU on July 11 and handed the teller a note demanding cash before making...

Community CUs Not A Jumping Off Point For Bank Conversions.
September 7, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- Converting to a community credit union is not a jumping off point to converting to a bank charter, and the trade association representing community charters wants to make sure everyone knows it. "We are concerned that there...

Johnson Defends NCUA Position On Communty, OmniAmerica.
September 7, 2005... LAS VEGAS -- No doubt feeling the heat from Congress as efforts to pass a bill reining in NCUA's authority over CU-to-bank conversions are afoot, NCUA Chairman JoAnn Johnson took the opportunity at NAFCU's annual meeting to defend the agency's...

Thinking Outside the Silo.
September 8, 2005... When I was interviewing sources for this month's cover story, SMAs: Recipe for Success (page 14), it became clear that siloed thinking in banks is still a major stumbling block in capturing business that is otherwise going to the wirehouses....

The Bell Is Tolling for B-Shares.
September 8, 2005... With all the controversy surrounding the sale of B-shares by mutual funds, it was no major surprise when the Franklin Templeton fund family decided to eliminate the share class from its menu of products earlier this year. In fact, reps are...

Identity Management: A Corporate Headache Fuels It Splurge: Access-rights oversight climbs the company ladder.
September 8, 2005... Lehman Bros. used to take a week to sever or modify an employee's access rights to its internal IT systems. That was understandable, given that the investment banking firm's nearly 20,000 employees were mapped across 400,000 user accounts and...

Delinquencies: The IVM Collector: CUs become automated to curb subprime losses.
September 8, 2005... West Covina, CA-based First Financial Financial Credit Union faced slosing the core of its business. The institution had watched with increasing alarm as $14 million in delinquent subprime auto loans piled up, most over 60 days past due, across...

Many CUs Remain Unaccounted For In Wake Of Hurricane Katrina.
September 8, 2005... JACKSON, Miss. -- Many of the credit union victims of Hurricane Katrina are still scattered all across the country, unable to return to what is left-if anything-of their homes and their financial institutions, and the efforts to assist the...

A CUJ Special Report: Four Years After September 11: The Changed World of COMPLIANCE.
September 8, 2005... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Is bouncing a check a suspicious activity? Should a report be filed? Does the member have an unusual number of deposits in his checking account? Is he or she in a position to be bribed? Few could have predicted...

NCUA Drops Its Objections To Two Texas Conversions.
September 8, 2005... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- In a rapid retreat last week, NCUA agreed to drop its objections to the charter conversions of Community CU and OmniAmerican CU, clearing the way for the two largest credit union-to-bank shifts ever. The deal, struck...

Changes Likely After Hearings On Texas Conversions.
September 8, 2005... AUSTIN -- The Texas Credit Union Department is considering changes to its credit union-to-bank conversion rules in the wake of the controversy over the conversions Community CU in Plano and OmniAmerican CU in Fort Worth. "Without...

Bad Debt: As Prices Spike, Supply Tightens: A frenzy of new buyers is also shaking up the market.
September 8, 2005... Banks selling off bad consumer debt have enjoyed steep price increases over the past year. But in a cyclical business dependent on interest rates, the precise repercussion of those increases is up for debate. Prices have jumped about 10...

Litigation: Risk-Based Loan Pricing Looms as Legal Nightmare: Is new Wells suit an omen of industry onslaught?
September 8, 2005... Wells Fargo's mortgage-lending practices are under scrutiny, as the nation's second-largest home lender was hit with a lawsuit in Los Angeles alleging that branches in minority neighborhoods don't offer the same discounts as those in white...

Hits and Has-Beens.
September 9, 2005... MetLife has named Donnalee A. DeMaio (right) president of MetLife Bank. DeMaio had been CFO. She replaces Shailendra Ghorpade, who joins the bank's International Operations division. Ian Cohen (below) has been named HSBC's global equities...

Fresh Ink.
September 9, 2005... 1. TD Banknorth agreed to buy Hudson Bancorp for $1.9 billion in cash and stock. The move strengthens TD's presence in Connecticut and eastern New York, while providing a new presence in the New Jersey and Philadelphia markets. The deal is...

On Deadline.
September 9, 2005... Special Plans Made For Automatic Deposits WASHINGTON-Credit unions and banks in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi have implemented contingency procedures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that meant a normal payday for millions of...

With Closure List Announced, Defense CUs Are Sighing-Or Buying.
September 9, 2005... WASHINGTON -- Reaction among defense credit unions to the latest Base Realignment and Closing Commission (BRAC) recommendations has been a predictable "let's wait and see what happens" and "we saw it coming." But some credit unions might be...

Arrowhead CU Fined For Not Reporting Contributions.
September 9, 2005... SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- Arrowhead Credit Union has been fined after it failed to report 124 campaign contributions for a total of $104,441.50 it made between January 2000 and June 2004. Pete Aguilar, Arrowhead's vice president and...

Availability Of Parking Becomes Sales Point In LA.
September 9, 2005... LOS ANGELES -- With competition here fierce and advertising fiendishly expensive, First City Credit Union decided to kill two birds with one stone. It recently placed a 30-foot banner on the exterior of its downtown branch promoting...

Offshoring: Feds Take Fresh Look At India Bpos: Major theft has raised more than a few eyebrows.
September 9, 2005... The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has depended on U.S. banks' internal operations to monitor the security of their offshore captive sites or third-party provider contracts, primarily in India. Now examiners are taking a closer...

Giving Enterprise Security a Bigger Spotlight.
September 9, 2005... Securing a financial enterprise from the inside out is no easy task. Just ask those individuals whose job it is to do so everyday. With this issue comes the debut of Financial IT Security, a sister publication of BTN, whose mission is to...

Ohio Bankers Association Partners with Bank-Owned TPM.
September 9, 2005... Regional bankers cheered when the Virginia Bankers Association (VBA) started up its own bank-owned broker-dealer to meet the needs of its bank members. That was five years ago, however, and the only state banking associations intrepid enough...

In The Know.
September 9, 2005... Barclays Global Investors will move the primary listing of 81 exchange- traded iShares from the American Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange and the Archipelago Exchange. The funds will move in several phases, starting later in...

Ensuring BSA Rules Can't Be Ducked: After a year of fits and starts on BSA enforcement, FinCEN and the five bank regulators are working in concert to ensure fairer implementation of AML regulations. Is it enough?
September 12, 2005... Is it possible that federal regulators and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network are finally cooperating to get their ducks in a row on money-laundering prosecutions? A number of new developments this summer suggest that they are. After...

As HSAs Multiply, So Do Vendors: With a market predicted to surpass that of 401(k)s, health savings accounts are becoming the hottest commodity. But the most important decision? Which technology to use.
September 12, 2005... Got milk? In a few years, health savings accounts, or HSAs, will be a fundamental banking product, a staple, like milk in a grocery store, says John Reynolds, svp and business director for Wells Fargo's health- benefits service. Right now,...

Top Tech Deals.
September 12, 2005... Number One Oracle plans to buy a majority interest in Indian application- software firm i-Flex Solutions. It will acquire a 41 percent ownership stake from Citigroup Venture Capital International, allowing Oracle to expand into the Indian...

Call Centers: As Patent Legal Battle Looms, Citibank Digs In For A Fight: Discover and other firms are also named in the suit, which alleges that firms are using patented technology without a license.
September 12, 2005... In mid-July, Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing filed a lawsuit against Citibank and Discover Financial, among others, alleging that the companies were using patented automated call-center technology without having licensed it. It isn't the...

Letters To The Editor: Lesson In Economics Is Needed.(Letter to the Editor)
September 12, 2005... CUNA's Dr. Bill Hampel needs a lesson in economics. The article (CU Journal, Aug. 8) stated, "Hampel sees this as a troubling trend. 'If you don't grow, you die,'" he told The Credit Union Journal. This is a for-profit...

What A CU Must Know To Grow Share Of Wallet.
September 12, 2005... SAN DIEGO -- If a credit union wants to gain an increasing share of the member's wallet, they must truly understand the drivers and behaviors that determine asset movement, according to one person. John O'Malley, president of Harland...

SAFE CU Wins CTC's 2005 Best Practices Award.
September 12, 2005... NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. -- SAFE Credit Union won the CUNA Technology Council's 2005 Best Practices Award for Sales Management. The award was presented during the CTC's Annual Summit in San Diego. SAFE received the Sales Management Best...

Minnesota CUs Hire Former State Rep As Lobbyist.
September 12, 2005... MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Doug Stang, a former State Representative from Cold Spring, Minn., has joined lobbying firm Lockridge Grindal Nauen, which represents the Minnesota Credit Union Network as its outside lobbying firm. LGN has practices in...

SMAs: Recipe for Success: Open-architecture money management is helping banks take high-net- worth business back from the wirehouses.
September 12, 2005... Bank brokerages mulling how to annuitize their businesses with fee accounts are increasingly settling on the solution of separately managed accounts (SMAs). Once the bailiwick of trust departments using proprietary portfolio managers, SMAs open...

Onwards and Upwards: How Fulton Financial Advisors keeps pace with its acquisitive parent.
September 12, 2005... For Fulton Financial Advisors (FFA), the name of the game is keeping up with its parent company's aggressive acquisition strategy, which is focused primarily on community banks with a strong local presence but with little in the way of...

Fine. But Not Dandy: What The Experts Say Credit Unions Must Do To Avoid The BSA Non- Compliance Fines That Have Hit Banks.
September 13, 2005... ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- A $24-million fine should say it all. On Aug. 17, 2005 the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed its second-largest fine for...

CUJ Resources.
September 13, 2005... For info on this story: * NCUA offers the Compliance Self Assessment Guide, which can be downloaded in PDF format from its website at www.ncua.gov. * The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) provides financial...

Experts See Shortcomings For CUs On BSA Compliance.
September 13, 2005... CHICAGO -- Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of compliance is that there are so many definite penalties for not complying with indefinite rules. Should credit unions file a suspicious activity report on every bounced check? What are...

CUJ Q&A: Should SARS be filed on every bounced check? What are the risks of shared brances? And just what is a PEP?
September 13, 2005... CHICAGO -- Three compliance experts on Bank Secrecy Act and Anti-Money Laundering took questions from regulators and credit unions during NASCUS' annual meeting here. Here are some of the questions posed to Jeffrey Pratt, senior regulatory...

Meaning of Outsourcing More Than Words, Costs.
September 13, 2005... Dominick Cavuoto President Unisys Global Financial Services When television hosts criticize the exporting of American jobs and intermingle the words "offshoring" and "outsourcing," it gets under Dominick Cavuoto's skin. To...

Business Banking: Bridge Jobs Out Its It To Lure Tech Biz: San Jose-based institution relies heavily on technology outsourcing in its battle to gain market share in California's technology business corridor. It's facing some pretty stiff competition.
September 13, 2005... How does a four-year-old, $500 million, Bay Area start-up business bank intend to compete successfully with Silicon Valley Bank and Comerica for the region's technology lending market? Mostly by using the same approach that has earned the bank...

Exploring the Alternatives.
September 13, 2005... This article, examining cash, derivatives and real-estate investment trusts, is the fourth in a series of monthly columns presenting lessons from a certificate course offered by the Investment Management Consultants Association. Designing...

Talking Texas: These southern bank reps tend to be moving toward more planning and fee-based business.
September 13, 2005... There's as much diversity in Texan reps' businesses as there is in the Lone Star State's chili recipes. Here's how three local reps plan their clients' financial lives. They are: Jim Carlton, a vice president and senior financial consultant...

Designing an [Optimal ] Capital Structure: Nimble capital management can help non-Basel II-adopting banks level the competitive playing field.
September 13, 2005... A number of developments in the past few years have dramatically changed the framework for evaluating capital structure alternatives for U.S. insured depository institutions of all sizes. First, the implementation of Financial Accounting...

Working Like a Dog To be Top Dog: The top five investment banks racked up $124.83 billion worth of deals in 20 transactions through June. That's 40 percent less than the $207 billion achieved in the same period last year.
September 13, 2005... The biggest mid-year M&A dealmaker is the company that could: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Fully employee-owned, the 43-year-old KBW claims to be the largest full-service investment bank specializing exclusively in the financial services sector....

Native Americans Are Catching Banks' Eye: Only 2.8 million Americans claim to be full-blooded natives, but this group's growing financial needs are attracting banks. A key component for success? Trustworthiness.
September 14, 2005... Ask Bob Bryce what a salmon ceremony is, and he'll tell you. The president of Snohomish, WA-based First Heritage Bank has attended several of the events, which the Tulalip Native American tribe performs yearly to commemorate the arrival of the...

AD Beat: Branded Content Helps Bank Of New York Strike Hip Pose: The New York bank is partnering with New York City to sponsor a cable entertainment show. It also has a cameo role. Who knew a 221- year-old bank could act so young?
September 14, 2005... When the Bank of New York's advertising agency heard about New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to reinvigorate its public relations message, it was a classic light-bulb moment. "We thought it was a wonderful opportunity for our...

How Banks Can Keep Their Cool In a Heated Summer of E-Fraud: Technology, once believed to be a fraud stopper, may be helping scammers better play their hand. But banks need more than just software to fight the problem.
September 14, 2005... For IT executives in charge of keeping customers and their data secure when just about every news report brings word of another breach, the landscape surveyed by Maureen McCarthy must seem awfully familiar-or maybe just awful. The director...

Turf War: The banking and real estate lobbyists are ready to square off once again over banks selling real estate, an irony given that banks' ambivalence remains strong. But for one small Virginia maverick, selling real estate since January, business is booming.
September 14, 2005... Lobbyists have been angling to enable banks to sell real estate for six years, ever since the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act opened the door for banks to offer more financial products. But real estate brokerage has eluded banks, which have been stymied...