Archive for November, 2009
Virgin Money Winds Down U.S. Business Operations
Virgin Money has recently redesigned their U.S. website and has dropped the majority of their service offerings. If you navigate over to Virgin Money’s website, you’ll see the phrase “Everyone’s better off with simplicity in a complex world”. Some might contend that this is Virgin Money’s new strategy for its U.S. operations. The company has [...]
Credit Card Defaults Fall At Capital One (NYSE: COF), BofA (NYSE: BAC) And JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), But Delinquencies Rise
Several large financial institutions, such as Capital One (NYSE: COF), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) reported Monday that credit card defaults fell in October. However, a rise in delinquencies was reported by several banks suggesting further struggles for the industry still lay ahead. Capital One Financial Corp., in a regulatory [...]
Prosper.com Receives $1 Million Bridge-Funding Investment
Peer-to-Peer lending company, Prosper, announced last week that they have received a $1 million investment from the founder of Capital One, Nigel Moris, who now leads and investment group called QED Investors. The terms of the loan made in the SEC Form 8-K filing describes the loan in some more detail. Under the deal, the [...]
$300 Million Hedge Fund Shift Good News for Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bad News for Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)
A hedge fund with over $29 billion in assets has made a play to take a significant ownership share in Citigroup (NYSE: C), while selling its entire stake in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and selling shares in JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). The hedge fund, Paulson & Co, has [...]
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Citibank (NYSE:C) Checking Account Fees Reveal Folly of Government Interference
There are always unintended consequences to government interference in the marketplace, and that’s no exception with the banking industry, as recent fees were added to checking accounts at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Citibank (NYSE:C) in order to make up for lost income from recent government regulation added to the industry. Unfortunately, consumers, for the [...]
FDIC Shutters Three More Banks on Friday the 13th
With the three banks closed on Friday the 13th, the total for the year has now reached 123. The banks taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation included unsurprisingly, two in Florida and one in California. The Florida banks were Orion Bank, Naples, Florida, and Century Bank, FSB, Sarasota, Florida. In California Pacific Coast [...]
China Criticizes U.S. Monetary Policy, Says Could Risk Global Recovery
Liu Mingkang, China’s top banking regulator, speaking at the International Finance Forum in Beijing on November 15, said that U.S. monetary policy is generating a tremendous amount of speculation in global asset markets, and risks prolonging any economic global recovery while those policies remain in place. What Liu is referring to is the commitment to [...]
Analysts: Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Should Keep Ken Lewis as CEO … For Now
There is a potential disaster looming at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) concerning its CEO situation, where nobody with any brains would want to accept the position, as government attacks on Ken Lewis would assuredly continue on with his successor. Lewis has of course come under heavy scrutiny from the deal made for Merrill Lynch and [...]
Hedge Fund Billionaire Paulson Takes Citigroup (NYSE: C) Stake, Reduces JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM)
Billionaire investor John Paulson disclosed in a regulatory filing his Paulson & Co. hedge fund took a large stake in Citigroup (NYSE: C), while reducing its holdings in JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Goldman Sachs (NYSES: GS). According to the filing, the New York based hedge fund took a 300 million share position in [...]
Citigroup (NYSE: C) To Sell Stake In Japanese Call Center
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) announced Sunday it has agreed to sell its majority stake in Japanese call center Bellesystem24. The move is just the latest in assets sales by the bank as it aims to raise capital and shore up its balance sheet following a government bailout that included $45 billion in loans. The deal [...]
Bank of America’s (NYSE:BAC) CEO Search Hits Another Hurdle: Compensation
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) continues to seek a new chief executive, but troubles appear at each turn. Now, it seems that a major hurdle in the search will be the ability to offer pay commensurate with the position. While the Bank has allegedly compiled a list of well known and respected senior leaders at [...]
Is Investing in Peer-to-Peer Loans Through Prosper.com a Good Investment?
Prosper.com has been around for several years now and has recently began a significant advertising campaign, which includes running ads on CNBC and many are wondering if Prosper.com is a viable alternative investment for some of their investment dollars. If you’re unfamiliar with the company, it’s one of a few online market places that allow [...]
American Banking News Twitter Updates for the Week of 2009-11-15
RBS Cuts Losses, Bank Profits Slump – New York Times http://tinyurl.com/yc9k54y #Econ # Board May Reject Lewis's Picks – Wall Street Journal http://tinyurl.com/yex6zdw #Econ #
First Bank of Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) Rising Out of the Banksters Ashes?
It’s too bad Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) wasn’t allowed to enter into the banking industry, as it would have quickly shown the other poorly-run banks how to do it right and for far less. In 2007 Wal-Mart has applied for a banking charter and was refused after the banking industry lobbied the government to not allow [...]
New Lending Club Investor Tools Released, Aim to Offer More Consistent Rates of Return
Peer-to-Peer Lending Firm, Lending Club, recently launched several new features for investors using the service which will help them better diversify the loans that they fund in hopes of generating higher and more consistent returns. The long-awaited releases of new loan searching features went live at the end of October and aim to make it [...]
worst video player ever- after over2:00 there's still no video appearing 