Dec. 6, 2010 at 5:25 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Jobs/employment
By Reuters
Barclays Wealth, rapidly bulking up its U.S. business in the wake of the financial crisis, intends to accelerate its hiring efforts over the next two years.
The Barclays Plc. unit on Monday said it hired seven advisers with a combined $2.24 billion in client assets and who generated $17 million of revenue in the past year. The new investment representatives expand the London-based bank’s presence in Boston, New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
Barclay’s says it has hired 50 advisers in the Americas this year, giving it 250 representatives across the region. Get the full story »
Dec. 6, 2010 at 1:07 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Credit Cards,
Credit repair,
Litigation
By Associated Press
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is suing Discover over allegations that the credit card company charged customers for unauthorized account protection programs such as credit score tracking and identity theft protection.
Swanson filed a lawsuit Monday in Hennepin County District Court against Discover Bank, DFS Services and Riverwoods-based parent company Discover Financial Services. Discover is one of the nation’s largest credit card companies. Get the full story »
Dec. 6, 2010 at 11:59 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives,
Personnel moves
By Becky Yerak
Chicago-based PrivateBancorp Inc. named Thomas Doherty as its managing director and head of business banking, making a key hire in its community banking unit. Get the full story »
Dec. 6, 2010 at 11:25 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives
By Becky Yerak
Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. said Dennis Anosike has joined its corporate and institutional services unit as a leader of the group serving U.S. public pensions. Anosike comes to Northern from the U.S. Department of Commerce. He’s also former chief financial officer of the Chicago Transit Authority. Get the full story »
Dec. 2, 2010 at 5:52 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Banking,
IPOs,
Taxes
By Associated Press
The Treasury Department has received an additional $1.8 billion in net proceeds from the sale of additional stock in General Motors. Get the full story »
Dec. 2, 2010 at 2:05 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Litigation
By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
The trustee seeking money for victims of Bernard Madoff’s scheme sued JP Morgan Chase & Co. for more than $6 billion on Thursday, claiming the bank enabled his massive fraud.
Get the full story »
Dec. 2, 2010 at 12:07 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Chicago executives,
Policy,
Politics
By Becky Yerak
Chicago’s Arie and Ida Crown Memorial, the Crown Investment Fund, the Edgar D. Jannotta Jr. Revocable Trust and Allstate were among the “material investors” in various trusts and funds that borrowed under Federal Reserve programs aimed at easing the financial crisis, newly released records show.
The Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, or TALF, was set up by the Fed in November 2008 and began lending in March 2009. Get the full story »
Dec. 2, 2010 at 9:47 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking
By Becky Yerak
Harris Bank on LaSalle Street. (Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune)
About two dozen Illinois banks, including failed Amcore Bank and the parent of foreign-owned Harris Bank, tapped a Federal Reserve program that increased the amount of liquidity available to lenders during the financial crisis.
The Fed’s Term Auction Facility was established in December 2007, shortly after the first signs of the financial crisis began appearing.
Under the new Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Fed was required to make more details available on the more than 21,000 transactions in TAF and other programs intended to stabilize markets during the financial crisis, and to help get credit flowing again in hopes that the economy would recover and jobs would be created. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 5:36 p.m.
Filed under:
Bank failures,
Banking,
Insurance,
Policy,
Politics
By Reuters
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein testifies before a Senate investigative committee on Capitol Hill, April 27, 2010. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and other big U.S. banks repeatedly sought help from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, according to data on Wednesday that showed just how precarious their situation was at the time.
Many of the firms now boasting solid profits had to rely on funding from the U.S. central bank, which essentially acted as the glue holding the financial system together in the tumultuous months that followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.
Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, now part of Bank of America, were the three biggest recipients of the Fed’s key emergency lending programs, according to a Reuters analysis of Fed data. Goldman Sachs was sixth on the list, contradicting claims from its top executives that the firm always had plenty of cash on hand. Get the full story »
By Reuters
U.S. banks will have to make “significant investments” to clean up foreclosure practices and some lenders potentially face strong pressure from investors to buy back faulty mortgages, a top Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 2:51 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Litigation
By Associated Press
Fifth Third Bank has agreed to pay $9.5 million in a proposed settlement with customers who claimed they were improperly charged overdraft fees for insufficient funds on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals.
The class-action lawsuit filed Nov. 21, 2009 in U.S. District Court in northern Illinois alleges that Fifth Third changed the sequence of transactions to deplete customers’ accounts more quickly and boost the number of overdraft charges. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 10:21 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investing,
M&A
By Becky Yerak
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
On a day when one of its chief competitors announced 1,400 job cuts, Chicago-based Northern Trust Corp. said it has acquired Waterline Partners LLC, a Los Angeles investment advisory firm serving rich individuals and families.
Terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed. Northern’s stock was up about one percent in late-morning trading to $50.77 a share; the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.8 percent.
“We are delighted to announce a strategic acquisition that will bolster both our West Coast presence as well as our capabilities for clients,” Northern Trust Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederick Waddell said. Get the full story »
Dec. 1, 2010 at 10:02 a.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investigations
By Reuters
Bank of America has no evidence that it is the target of alleged plans by website WikiLeaks to disclose confidential data and that thousands of the bank’s internal documents have already been scoured by lawmakers and regulators, a top executive said Wednesday. Get the full story »
Nov. 30, 2010 at 5:14 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
Investigations
By Associated Press
Bank of America Corp. stock fell Tuesday afternoon on speculation that it might be the target of a WikiLeaks document release early next year.
Nov. 30, 2010 at 2:44 p.m.
Filed under:
Banking,
International,
Internet
By Dow Jones Newswires
A big U.S. bank is the target of the next megadata dump by WikiLeaks, the online site that this week released a trove of confidential U.S. diplomatic cables from around the world. In an interview with Forbes, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange compared the upcoming release, scheduled for next year, to the damaging emails that came out after the collapse of Enron Corp. He did not identify the bank.
That’s not stopping others from speculating.
Get the full story »
