Home » Archive for September, 2009
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... More of this article »
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... More of this article »
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... More of this article »
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... More of this article »
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... More of this article »
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... More of this article »
Why Does Lending Club Turn Away 90% of Potential Borrowers?
Consumers are increasingly looking to peer-to-peer lending sites such as Lending Club as credit card companies raise their interest rate, but why does Lending Club turn away 90% of people that apply to borrow money from the site? In... More of this article »
Banks Reduce Borrowing from Federal Reserve’s Emergency Lending Facility
Over the last week, Banks decreased their borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending facility and decreased their participation in other programs intended to ease the financial crisis, leading some to believe that the... More of this article »
Federal Reserve President Sees “Lackluster” Recovery in U.S.
The economic recovery in the United States will be “lackluster” because of weak consumer spending and strains in the financial market, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart said. In a speech yesterday in Jacksonville,... More of this article »
Moody’s Predicts Continued Banking Woes Through 2010
Moody’s Investors Services predicts that there will be “substantial additional” loan losses by United States banks through the end of next year, which will likely hinder their profits for “extended periods and putting stress... More of this article »
U.S. House to Hold Hearings on Federal Reserve Audit
Congressman Ron Paul informed the Campaign for Liberty that the House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings on Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve (H.R. 1207). The hearings are currently tentatively set for Friday,... More of this article »
Wells Fargo and Bank of America Step Up Mortgage Modifications
Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) have stepped up their loan modification efforts just one month after being accused of helping almost no borrowers. In total, lenders nationwide have now provided 360,000 modifications... More of this article »
Congress Loses Faith in the Federal Reserve—Strips Additional Authority from New Financial Regulation
The Federal Reserve was to play a major role in the Obama Administration’s proposed regulatory overhaul of the financial system, but Congress may stand in the way. Many Senators have lost confidence in the Federal Reserve and are... More of this article »
Defiant Bank of America Lawsuit Could Bring Transparency We’ve Been Looking For
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) is refusing to cave in to threats and allegations from New York Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo, and is ready to go to legal battle if the $33 million settlement agreed upon with the Securities and Exchange... More of this article »
Federal Reserve Reports Record Drop In Consumer Credit
The Federal Reserve reported yesterday that U.S. consumer credit dropped by a record $21.6 billion in July as Americans continue to pay down debt and delay big purchases that may have previously been financed. The July decline is... More of this article »
Proposed Debit Card Regulations Could Cause 1,000 Banks and 2,000 Credit Unions to Fail
New regulations that offer consumers additional rights and protections when using credit card have become law and are going into effect and now Congress will very likely focus on adding additional protections for users of checking... More of this article »
ING Direct Drops Orange Savings Account Interest Rate to 1.30%
ING Direct announced today that they were dropping the interest rate on their popular Orange Savings account to 1.30%, down .10% from 1.40% as of 9/9/2009. ING Direct gained notoriety in the banking industry for being one of the first... More of this article »
Pressure to Regulate Bank Debit Cards Increasing
It’s somewhat puzzling to me the big deal being made about the overdraft fees being charged for the use of debit cards. The reason is that the vast majority of consumers don’t overdraft their bank accounts, and those that... More of this article »
Editorial: Alan Greenspan Blames Human Nature, Not Himself, for Financial Crisis
Alan Greenspan thought when he stepped down as Chairman of the Federal Reserve that his place and name in economic history had been preserved, as he presumably had overseen the longest uninterrupted period of economic growth in the... More of this article »
Lending Club Announces “Click Free” Investments for Large Investors
In a recent conference call, Lending Club announced a new way for investors with $25,000 or more to invest in peer-to-peer loans through Lending Club without having to individually select the loans they wish to fund. Lending Club refers... More of this article »
How to Maximize your FDIC Insurance
If you have a significant amount of assets, you are going to want to make sure that your wealth is protected if the financial institutions that you work with go under. Here’s how to maximize the coverage your FDIC insurance offers... More of this article »
Editorial: Will Our Money Ever Feel Safe Again?
For those of us who understand the underlying weaknesses and vulnerability of fractional reserve banking, and by extension the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, among other elements of the banking system, it wasn’t a surprise when... More of this article »
The State of the P2P Lending Industry
After appearing in 2006, person-to-person lending has grown by leaps and bounds. There are now several companies competing in different areas of the industry, each continually refining their business model in hopes of maximizing the... More of this article »