Archive for September, 2009
Editorial: Illusory Economic and Banking Recovery Continues – Right?
Many people are either scratching their heads in consternation or celebrating over the assertions by the government and its court economists that the economy in the U.S., and by extension – the world – is in a state of recovery. It’s so nonsensical when you take into account the overall picture, that it must be [...]
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-13
HSBC bids for ING's private banking unit: report – Reuters http://tinyurl.com/nx3n6g #Econ # US says to implement Basel II banking rules – Reuters http://tinyurl.com/my99hd #Econ # International regulators agree on new bank rules – Reuters http://tinyurl.com/m2dh5c #Econ # HSBC reportedly bids for ING private-banking units – MarketWatch http://tinyurl.com/kmxsq7 #Econ # Barclays taps M.Stanley's Ginsburg as [...]
Account Review: Savings Square’s 1.70% APY Online Savings Account
Update 9/20/2009: Savings Square’s Interest Rate dropped from 1.70% to 1.55% APY. SavingsSquare.com, a product of Kirkpatrick Bank, is offering a 1.70% high-yield online savings account. The account Savings Square is offering requires a minimum opening deposit of $1.00 and has a maximum opening deposit of $100,000. There are no monthly fees or minimum balance [...]
Account Reviews: Capital One’s 1.60% APY Online Savings Account
Capital One is offering an online savings account that offers interest rates between 0.6% and 1.60% depending on the account balance. Account holders that have balances between $0 and $10,000 will earn 0.60% APY on their savings and customers with balances greater than $10,000 will earn 1.60% APY on their money. Capital One’s online savings [...]
Account Reviews: Ally Bank’s 1.75% APY High-Yield Savings Account
Update: 10/5/2009 – Ally Bank has increased their interest rate to 1.80% APY Ally Bank (formerly GMAC) bank is offering a competitive high-yield savings account that is currently offering a 1.75% APY interest rate as of September, 2009. Ally’s high-yield savings account offering has no minimum balance requirements and charges its customers no monthly account [...]
Money Market Guarantee Program To Expire Next Week
The U.S. Treasury Department announced last week that it will end a program which provided a temporary guarantee for money market funds. The program was installed about a year ago when the nation’s financial crisis was near its peak. The government essentially backed about $3 trillion in the money market space after a large fund [...]
Account Reviews: AmTrust Direct High Interest E-Savings Account
The thrust by banks to generate new business and attract new costumers has been beneficial for consumers looking for the best rates from high interest savings accounts. To that end AmTrust Bank created a division named AmTrust Direct, to offer a variety of products. The AmTrust Direct High Interest E-Savings Account comes from the Internet-only [...]
Banking Books: “Meltdown” by Thomas E. Woods Jr.
The full title of Wood’s book is ‘Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.’ If a one-sentence description were to be attached to this book review, it would be that the free market was not the cause of the financial crisis we’re [...]
The Safest Online Banks: Is Your Online Savings Account At Risk?
We recently reported about the accuracy of BankRate’s Safe and Sound Rating System, a measure of a financial institutions overall health. Since there have been 92 bank failures so far in 2009, it makes sense to ask “Which banks are doing just fine?” We decided to take a look at which banks that offer online [...]
Corus Bank, Brickwell Community Bank and Venture Bank Fail—Pushing Total to 92 Bank Failures in 2009.
Corus Bank, Brickwell Community Bank and Venture Bank Fail—Pushing Total to 92 Bank Failures in 2009. Regulators closed down a large Illinois-based bank on Friday, marking one of the biggest collapses of the year as well as two other smaller failures, pushing the number of bank failures in 2009 to 92. Corus Bank was closed [...]
Can BankRate’s “Safe and Sound” Rating System Be Trusted?
With a total of 92 banks shuttering this year, many are questioning if their banks are next in line for failure. BankRate’s “Safe and Sound” Rating System suggests that it can measure the financial health of banks, but are its ratings accurate? For starters, how does BankRate.com’s “Safe and Sound” Rating System Work? According BankRate’s [...]
Federal Reserve Failed to Stop Banks’ Flawed Loans, Says Inspector
The Federal Reserve’s inspector general stated that the Fed had failed to curb practices that lead to significant loan losses from excessive real estate landings at two banks in California and Florida that later went under. In a recent report, Atlanta Fed Inspector General, Elizabeth Coleman stated that Riverside Bank in Cape Coral, FL “warranted [...]
Account Reviews: Discover Bank’s 2.00% APY Online Savings Account
Update 10/5/2009: Discover Bank has dropped their interest rates to 1.85% APY. In the last few months, Discover Bank (NYSE: DFS) has offered some very competitive personal savings products including a new penalty-free certificate of deposit and a high-yield savings account that earns 2.00% APY. Discover Bank’s online savings account requires a $500 minimum initial [...]
Account Reviews: Dollar Savings Direct’s 1.70% APY Dollar Savings Account
Emigrant Bank, one of the first banks to offer internet savings accounts, has now repositioned itself in the market by offering two public faces—Emigrant Direct and Dollar Savings Direct. At first, Emigrant had hoped have two brands and target Spanish speaking individuals with a brand called BancoFortuna, but Emigrant seems to have given up on [...]
Mobile Banking ‘Report Card’ Shows it’s Rolling Out Slowly
Mobile banking has been touted as the future of banking, and for the last couple of years some banks have been slowly rolling out mobile banking programs to test the waters. According to a mobile banking report card from ABI Research Inc., which looked mobile banking services being offered by 29 of the largest banks [...]
worst video player ever- after over2:00 there's still no video appearing 