banking industry

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Make Starbucks What It Sounds Like: a Bank

(Newser) - Forget new drinks—Starbucks should try adding a new sector, writes John Gapper in the Financial Times: banking. It might sound ridiculous to pair cappuccinos and checking accounts, but Starbucks’ 7,000 branches outstrip Bank of America, and, in Gapper’s plan, it wouldn’t even need tellers. Starbucks could...

Lewis Ousted as BofA Chairman; Remains CEO

(Newser) - Bank of America shareholders gave Ken Lewis a demotion today. Lewis will remain the bank's president and CEO, but he will lose his position as board chairman, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders—angry about the bank's plummeting fortunes of late—voted to split the chairman and CEO duties. Walter...

Fed Tells BofA, Citi to Raise Billions

(Newser) - Federal Reserve regulators are urging Bank of America and Citigroup to raise more capital, based on their preliminary stress test results, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. Sources familiar with Bank of America say the shortfall numbers in the billions. But both banks are protesting, with Bank of America expected...

Stocks Edge Higher
 Stocks Edge Higher  
Market Open
Apr 24, 2009 8:48 AM CDT

Stocks Edge Higher

(Newser) - Stocks got a modest boost at the open, as better-than-expected earnings battled with stress test anxiety. The Dow rose 51 points, while the S&P and Nasdaq added 0.6% and 0.4% respectively, the Wall Street Journal reports. Ford skyrocketed 19% after reporting a mere $1.4 billion—and...

Banks Get Stress Test Grades
 Banks Get Stress Test Grades 
Apr 24, 2009 8:40 AM CDT

Banks Get Stress Test Grades

Pandit out at Citi?

(Newser) - The nation's biggest banks will start to learn how they did on the dreaded stress test today, reports the New York Times. Though the public won’t learn the results until May 4, analysts are predicting that many of the 19 banks will have to raise large amounts of new...

Paulson Threatened to Oust Lewis, BofA Board

Cuomo wants federal investigation

(Newser) - Bank of America wanted to pull out of its deal with a fast-sinking Merrill Lynch last year but changed course after then-Treasury chief Henry Paulson threatened to oust CEO Ken Lewis and the entire BofA board, the Wall Street Journal reports. The revelation came in a letter to members of...

How Wall Street Went Hollywood (and Brought Down Our Economy)

(Newser) - During the Great Depression, legend has it a group of Wall Street bankers went to Hollywood to see if it was worth investing in, only to be immediately repulsed by the brazen displays of wealth they saw there. Now that it's the bankers being pilloried for their excesses, writes Neal...

Bank of America Profit Trounces Estimates

(Newser) - Bank of America’s net income in the third quarter nearly tripled last year's, hitting $4.24 billion, or 44 cents a share, the company announced today, a figure that surpassed even the loftiest analyst expectations. The drastic turnaround will likely take pressure off embattled CEO Ken Lewis, who’s...

Citing Too-Low Prices, Banks Won't Sell Toxic Assets

Stress test an Obama weapon

(Newser) - Banks are proving so reluctant to part with their so-called “toxic assets” that the Obama administration may have to strong-arm them into doing so, Time reports. Banks are protesting that the prices being offered—about $70 per $100 bond by the magazine’s calculations—are too low. That’s...

Lehman Bankruptcy Nets Record Fees for Lawyers

(Newser) - Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing is a gold mine for lawyers. One New York firm asked a bankruptcy judge this week to authorize a $55 million payment—the largest quarterly fee ever for a bankruptcy case, the Wall Street Journal reports. When all is said and done, this firm alone—Weil,...

Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street
 Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street 
Apr 12, 2009 3:16 PM CDT

Brain Drain Wallops Wall Street

It's not just the firings: others are leaving for safer jobs

(Newser) - The financial crisis is reshaping not just the landscape of Wall Street, but its face as well, reports the New York Times in a look at the hemorrhaging of the Street's top talent. Layoffs aside, finance's best and brightest—arguably the same daring risk-takers responsible for the recession—are seizing...

Banking Should Go Back to Being Boring

(Newser) - When Paul Krugman was in grad school, nobody wanted to be a banker. Sure, it paid more than being an academic economist, but “everyone knew that banking was, well, boring,” he writes in the New York Times. That was before deregulation came into vogue in the 1980s, turning...

Obama: Make Middle-Class Tax Cuts Permanent

Geithner defends Treasury handling of AIG bonuses

(Newser) - President Obama hit the Sunday talk show circuit today, vowing to push Congress for a permanent middle-class tax cut for as long as it takes. “I strongly believe that we should continue those tax cuts,” Obama told CBS’ Face the Nation. “It’s still the right thing...

Waters Helped Get Funds for Bank With Family Ties

Critics see major conflict of interest

(Newser) - Maxine Waters is getting lots of unwanted attention about her role in helping a bank with family ties get a helping of TARP money. Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have stories raising questions about whether the California congresswoman used undue influence to get aid for...

Dodd Moves to Lend FDIC $500B

(Newser) - Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd has introduced a bill to allow the FDIC to borrow up to $500 billion from the Treasury Department, the Wall Street Journal reports. It’s the latest attempt to bolster the fund that insures consumer deposits, which has been ravaged by a string of bank...

Got a Buck? Buy a Share of Citi

(Newser) - A sign of the times: Citibank shares are now eligible for your local dollar store. The bank’s shares fell below $1 for the first time ever today in trading, MarketWatch reports. They reached 97¢ at midday, about 2 years after trading at an all-time high of $57. Investors apparently...

Cuomo Subpoenas Merrill's $10M Execs

Payouts may violate securities law

(Newser) - New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed top executives of Merrill Lynch who got at least $10 million each last year as the bank floundered, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cuomo is investigating whether the payouts violated securities law and wants to know why executives at Merrill and Bank...

Debt Collectors Fleece Relatives of the Dead

Getting bereaved to pay up one of the healthiest parts of industry

(Newser) - Bankruptcy and defaults are all the rage these days, but one group is being targeted to pay up: the dead. Entire debt collection agencies have cropped up that specialize in calling bereaved relatives and convincing them to pay the deceased’s debts, even though they have no legal obligation to...

Feds Aim to Generate $1T in Consumer Loans

(Newser) - There's a new acronym in bailout land: TALF. Officials at the Fed and Treasury Department today outlined the new lending program, which is designed to revive the nation's so-called shadow banking system and generate up to $1 trillion in loans to consumers and small businesses, the Wall Street Journal reports....

Bankers Blamed for Mess Get Rich Cleaning It Up

(Newser) - The irony is, well, rich. Former executives of Countrywide Financial—the bank whose risky loans to homeowners have become synonymous with the subprime mess—are now making a mint helping the government fix things, the New York Times reports. A dozen former Countrywide executives, including President Stanford L. Kurland, have...

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