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Bank of Montreal will acquire Marshall & Ilsley Corp. in a stock-for-stock deal valued at about $4.1 billion, further strengthening the Canadian bank’s position in the Midwest.
Bank of Montreal said Friday that, under the definitive agreement, it’s offering 0.1257 of a share for each M&I share. Based on Bank of Montreal’s closing stock price in Toronto Thursday, the deal values M&I at $7.75 a share. Get the full story »
In a blow to the banking industry, U.S. Federal Reserve officials Thursday agreed to advance a proposal that would prevent banks from charging merchants “swipe fees” from debit cards that are higher than 12 cents per transaction.
“It’s going to be painful,” said Consumer Bankers Association President Richard Hunt. “If adopted, this will result in a significant reduction in revenue and efficiencies and have major negative implications for consumers.” Get the full story »
Discover Financial Services reported a quarterly profit of $350 million on Thursday as consumers spent more on their credit cards and the company expanded its non-lending lines of business. The credit card lender and transaction-processing network said it earned 64 cents per share in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Nov. 30. Get the full story »
Bank of America Corp. is in talks with a group of six investors to settle charges that it mishandled $16.5 billion in mortgages packaged into bonds, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The investor group, which includes Freddie Mac, PIMCO, BlackRock Inc. and Allianz SE, told the bank in October that it had 60 days to respond to allegations that it did not properly service 115 bond deals comprising mortgages. The deadline for the bank’s response was Thursday, the Journal said. Get the full story »
Crain’s Chicago Business | The parent of Builders Bank has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to deal with a debt load it says it cannot handle.
Note: An earlier headline incorrectly stated that Builders Bank had filed Chapter 11. It has not; nor has CEO Mitchell Saywitz. Its parent, Builders Financial Corp., filed the petition.
Chase customers who don’t earn a lot or rely on paltry government benefits may soon have to pay a monthly fee on their checking accounts.
The bank started notifying customers this month that direct deposits will have to be at least $500 to qualify for a waiver on the $6 monthly fee. Get the full story »
UBS is aiming to polish its tarnished image with a new dress code, as it seeks to regain the faith of retail clients after posting the biggest loss in Swiss corporate history during the financial crisis.
A 52-page internal document seen by Reuters advises customer-facing staff in five pilot scheme branches on how to make a good impression with customers by choosing flesh-colored underwear and stockings and avoiding smelly foods and tobacco. Get the full story »
European Union paymaster Germany said on Tuesday that it would support giving the European Central Bank more capital to help fight a sovereign debt crisis that continues to shake the euro zone.
ECB sources told Reuters the bank’s governing council would consider at a meeting on Wednesday and Thursday whether to seek a capital increase from euro zone members to cover the risk of losses on government bonds it has bought to support the 16-nation single currency area. Get the full story »
Payroll software firm Paychex Inc. agreed to buy privately held SurePayroll Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Paychex provides a full menu of services for small to medium-size businesses such as payroll, human resources and employee benefits outsourcing. Meanwhile, SurePayroll, which has about 30,000 small business customers, provides online payroll services through banking partners including Citibank, Harris Bank and SunTrust Bank. Get the full story »
From HedgeFund.net | Chicago-based Citadel LLC has hired Miguel Abreu, a former JPMorgan commodities trader who worked at JPMorgan’s commodities trading desk before it was shut down.
Bailed-out insurer American International Group took another step in its restructuring this week, but it is only noticeable to those looking closely: it put the company’s logo back on employee identification cards. Get the full story »
High-tech thief or bogus prosecution? Those were the opposing closing arguments offered on Thursday in the case of a computer programmer accused of stealing high-speed trading code from Goldman Sachs.
Sergey Aleynikov, 40, was charged with stealing critical parts of code as he left Wall Street’s most influential bank in June 2009 before joining Teza Technologies LLC, a high speed-trading start-up firm in Chicago. Get the full story »
Foreign central banks’ overall holdings of marketable securities at the Federal Reserve fell in the latest week, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday. Get the full story »
Here’s some modestly encouraging news for job seekers: About 47 percent of companies with sales in the $25 million to $2 billion range, plan to hire employees in 2011, according to a national survey of chief financial officers (CFOs) by Bank of America.
First Security Trust & Savings Bank loan officer Jeffrey Gonsiewski, pleaded guilty in August to one count of federal bank fraud, was sentenced to 63 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo on Tuesday.
The U.S. Government last summer had accused the 56-year-old high school graduate of changing loan terms or arranging loans to be made in a scheme that ultimately caused the Elmwood Park-based lender, part of the Wirtz family empire, to lose more than $5.5 million. Get the full story »
