Archive for August, 2009
SmartyPig Decreases Interest Rate to 2.01% APY
SmartyPig announced on Friday that they will be making the largest cut in the interest rates that they offer in the last year. On SmartyPig’s blog, the company’s co-founder Michael Ferrari, announced the news: Beginning Monday, Aug. 17, we will be reducing our APY to 2.01%. Historically, we’ve initiated less-frequent drops so as to enable [...]
Account Review: ING Direct’s Electric Orange Checking Account
Until a few years ago, free checking accounts were a very standardized and commoditized product. Every bank and credit union offers a free checking account with very similar features and there has been no compelling reason to move to another bank. ING Direct and other online banks, decided they were going to fight this trend [...]
FDIC Seizes Colonial Bank, Four Others
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announced Friday that it was appointed receiver of five more banks that were shutdown by State Commissions this week. The biggest name of which is Colonial Bank, which has been in the news the past few weeks. Speculation started to surround Colonial when the U.S. Department of Justice opened up an [...]
Colonial BancGroup May Be Taken Over by BB&T
A number of media outlets have been reporting that BB&T will be taking over the assets of Colonial BancGroup, citing sources familiar with the situation. Evidently the bank will be seized some time on Friday by bank regulators, which will make it the largest bank failure this year, and the fifth-largest in U.S. banking history. [...]
Account Review: FNBO Direct’s Online Savings Account
Having the reputation of being one of the best places to establish an online savings account by Kiplinger’s, along with being given a four stars out of five by Bankrate for their ‘Safe and Sound Ratings,’ First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) continues to be one of the premiere places to park your money in [...]
Federal Reserve To End Treasury Buying In October
Following the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting, the Federal Reserve said it plans to slow its purchases of U.S. Treasuries and end the buying program in October, one month later than originally planned. The Federal Reserve’s Treasury buying program has a target purchase amount of $300 billion. The program was designed to provide demand [...]
Bank of America Files Lawsuit Against Colonial BancGroup
As Colonial BancGroup struggles to survive, Bank of America Corp. filed a lawsuit in order to protect its claim on Colonial loans in case it ends up declaring bankruptcy. In the lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida, Bank of America asserted that over $1 billion in loans Colonial [...]
No Housing or Banking Recovery Any Time Soon
After the attempts by the FOMC yesterday to assure people the economy has been ‘leveling’ off, it left a hollow ring in our ears, as news that homes about to go into foreclosure rose by seven percent from just June to July dampened any positive spin attempted by Ben Bernanke and the agency. According to [...]
ING Finally Back in the Black After Three Losing Quarters
After struggling with three consecutive losing quarters, ING Group announced today that it enjoyed a small profit in their second quarter, coming in at $100 million, although down significantly from the same period last year when the recorded profits of well over $2 billion. Even so, the continual weakness in real estate, with write-downs and [...]
Colonial Bancgroup Unable to File 2nd Quarter Results Citing Accounting Irregularities
A meeting between Alabama banking regulators and Colonial Bank scheduled for Wednesday, August 12, was canceled, which was set to talk about the possible takeover of the company by the FDIC. The reason it was canceled was because a secret meeting was held on Monday instead, between the Alabama Banking Department and Colonial Banking officials. [...]
U.S. Banks Starting to Hire Again
After letting thousands of employees go over the last couple of years, banks in the U.S. are starting to hire again, although at a slow and generally cautious rate. The vast majority of the hiring has been on the investment banking side, as the stock market has surged and credit spreads started to narrow even [...]
Investors Flee Banking Stocks as Fundamentals Haven’t Improved
The drop in U.S. stocks today came about from an announcement by Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove that the underlying fundamentals in the banking and financial industry really haven’t improved at all. A plunge in the inventory of wholesalers also contributed to the overall stock market weakness today, as it was an unexpected event, whereby [...]
Freddie Mac Posts Q2 Profit, Does Not Seek Additional Aid
Freddie Mac surprised Wall Street by announcing that it swung to a profit in the second quarter, its first profit in the past two years. The mortgage company also said it does not require additional financial aid from the government at this time. The company, which is under federal conservatorship, posted a second quarter profit [...]
U.S. Banks Quietly Increasing Overdraft Fees for $38 Billion in Profits!
Editorial A research paper from Moebs Services asserts that a large number of banks in the United States have quietly been adding overdraft fees throughout the last year, and could end up making about $38.5 billion extra from the practice. Obviously those who will suffer the most from this are consumers you can least afford [...]
Can Guaranteed Bonuses in the Banking Industry Really be Stopped?
The public outcry over huge guaranteed bonuses independent of performance has pressured the Obama administration to attempt to do something about the practice, but the challenges are great if there will ever be any changes made there. Before we get into all that, it must be mentioned that this is why government shouldn’t in any [...]
worst video player ever- after over2:00 there's still no video appearing 