Dec. 28, 2010 at 12:26 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investing,
Litigation,
Mortgages,
Real estate
By Dow Jones Newswires
Allstate Corp. has sued Bank of America Corp. and the Countrywide Financial mortgage unit it acquired in 2008 regarding $700 million in residential mortgage-backed securities the insurer purchased, claiming Countrywide misrepresented the investments, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
“Countrywide was singularly focused on increasing its market share, off-loading the risk onto Allstate and other institutional investors that purchased securities backed by pools of Countrywide’s mortgages,” Allstate said in its civil suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Get the full story »
Dec. 27, 2010 at 2:56 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Regulations,
Taxes
By Associated Press
Millions of H&R Block Inc. customers who relied on short-term loans backed by their expected tax refunds will not have that option this year, since Block’s banking partner was forced by federal regulators to stop offering the loans.
It’s a blow to Block, the nation’s largest tax preparation company, which could lose customers to competitors still offering the loans because it has virtually no time to find a new funding partner before tax season starts in January. Get the full story »
Dec. 27, 2010 at 7:07 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investing,
Stock activity
By Reuters
Hedge fund firm Citadel, one of the world’s biggest, returned 10 percent to its investors this year, more than double what its peers earned on average.
The Chicago-based firm’s flagship Kensington and Wellington funds climbed about 10 percent, according to a person who has seen the numbers but was not allowed to discuss them publicly. Get the full story »
Dec. 27, 2010 at 5:46 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Updated
By Becky Yerak
Days after one publicly traded Wisconsin bank agreed to sell itself, another said it’s in negotiations on more than $500 million in new loans in the Chicago area and plans to crack the Top 10 in deposit market share here in the next five years.
Associated Bank, part of Green Bay-based Associated Banc-Corp., has had a Chicago presence for 26 years and has 27 branches here with 275 employees. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 4:35 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Consumer news
By Becky Yerak
Chase, Chicago’s biggest bank, is making changes to its basic checking account that could make it tougher to avoid a monthly service fee.
Beginning Feb. 8 , customers will need at least one direct deposit of $500 a month for Chase to waive its $6 monthly service fee. The direct deposit may include a payroll, pension or government benefit payment, such as Social Security. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 11:02 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investing,
Stock activity
By Becky Yerak
Shares of PrivateBancorp Inc. are down 3.9 percent Thursday morning after a BMO Capital Markets report downgraded it to “market perform” from “outperform.”
The “market perform” designation means that it’s now forecast to perform about in line with the market. Get the full story »
Dec. 22, 2010 at 5:38 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking
New Lenox village government has a new banker.
The Village Board this week approved an ordinance switching its account from Harris Bank to Old Plank Trail Community Bank.
The village has had its banking services handled by the former New Lenox State Bank, now Harris, since the village incorporated in 1946. But after Harris recently began charging fees, Finance Director Kim Auchstetter recommended considering a change.
Dec. 22, 2010 at 3:33 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Economy,
Investing
By Associated Press
The Treasury Department says six banks have repaid government bailouts worth a combined $2.66 billion.
The banks are returning taxpayer money that they received in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
The banks that repaid their bailouts on Wednesday are Huntington Bancshares, First Horizon National Corp., Wintrust Financial Corp., Susquehanna Bancshares Inc., Heritage Financial Corp. and The Bank of Kentucky Financial Corp. Get the full story »
Dec. 22, 2010 at 7:59 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking
By Dow Jones Newswires
Deerfield Capital Corp. said it will buy private credit asset-management company Commercial Industrial Finance Corp. for about $53 million in cash and stock.
Following the completion of the merger, CIFC Chief Executive Peter Gleysteen will become chief executive of the combined company, while Deerfield Chief Executive Jonathan Trutter will become a vice chairman. The new company will have its headquarters in New York and its main operations in Chicago. Get the full story »
Dec. 21, 2010 at 4:51 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives,
Personnel moves
By Becky Yerak
Urban Partnership Bank, the $1.4 billion-asset successor to the failed ShoreBank, has hired Maureen Bismark as its legal department’s new assistant general counsel. Get the full story »
Dec. 21, 2010 at 10:37 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Economy,
Investing,
Policy
By Reuters
The Treasury Department plans to sell a large piece of its stake in American International Group in two stock offerings next year, officials briefed on the situation told Reuters. Get the full story »
Dec. 21, 2010 at 7:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Banking
By Associated Press
Toronto-Dominion Bank has agreed to buy Chrysler Financial, the automaker’s old lending arm, from private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP for $6.3 billion. Cerberus acquired the lender when it bought most of the automaker for $7.4 billion in 2007. Cerberus lost control of Chrysler when the automaker nearly ran out of cash and faced liquidation in 2008. Get the full story »
Dec. 20, 2010 at 3:53 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
M&A,
Stock activity
By Reuters
Shares of Bank of Montreal extended their slide on Monday, falling 2.2 percent as analysts chopped their share-price targets following the bank’s $4.1 billion deal to purchase Wisconsin lender Marshall & Ilsley Corp. Get the full story »
Dec. 17, 2010 at 1:13 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Real estate
By Associated Press
Arizona is filing a civil lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. alleging the company violated the state’s consumer fraud law by misleading consumers trying to get loan modifications.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Friday that the bank also violated the terms of a 2009 consent agreement it signed requiring the bank’s Countrywide mortgage subsidiary to implement a loan modification program.
Dec. 17, 2010 at 11:24 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Government
By Reuters
U.S. regulators have opened a new line of inquiry in their mortgage foreclosure probe and are asking big Wall Street banks about the beginning stages of mortgage securitization, two sources familiar with the probe said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission launched the new phase of its investigation by sending out a fresh round of subpoenas last week to big banks including Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co., the sources said. Get the full story »
