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As legislators on Capitol Hill trumpet a final agreement on sweeping financial reform, consumers might be wondering, “What’s in it for me?”
They will benefit in a big-picture way from many of the provisions in the bill, likely to be passed by Congress next week. It is meant to provide a more stable financial system, prevent government bailouts of banks and protect investors. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The financial reform bill was stripped of a provision calling for an FDIC examination of all bank bailouts since January 2009, sparing ShoreBank such an investigation.
A security expert has identified flaws in the design of some automated teller machines that make them vulnerable to hackers, who could make the dispensers spit out their cash holdings.
Barnaby Jack, head of research at Seattle-based, security firm IOActive Labs, will demonstrate methods for “jackpotting” ATMs at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas that starts on July 28. Get the full story »
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) talks with a group including Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), left, during a recess from a committee conference on Wall Street reform. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Ending more than two weeks of often-contentious negotiations, House and Senate lawmakers reached agreement early Friday on the most far-reaching rewrite of financial rules since the Great Depression.
The final details, including creation of an agency to protect consumers in the financial marketplace and new regulations to reduce risk-taking by large banks and limit their trading of complex derivatives, were hashed out in a marathon 20-hour session that began Thursday morning.
Lawmakers on a joint conference committee labored until dawn reconciling House and Senate versions of the legislation in time for President Obama to brief foreign leaders on the completed deal at a major economic summit in Canada starting Friday.
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Despite historic changes to the rules on Wall Street from financial reform, banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley won concessions that watered down the proposals that could have been most damaging to their profits, staving off a watershed overhaul like the one that took place after the Great Depression. Get the full story »
Struggling homeowners who have complained for more than a year that the federal government’s loan modification program was unfair got some validation Thursday.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) paints a picture of the Home Affordable Modification Program as an inconsistent effort with wide-ranging degrees of participation that could lead to different outcomes, even for borrowers who face similar personal circumstances.
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From WREX TV | Harris Bank, which took over Amcore Bank on April 23, 2010, announced plans to close 18 former Amcore branches and eliminate jobs as part of its buyout reorganization.
From the Des Moines Register | In addition to a 27-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Linda Reade will order Agriprocessors Inc. founder Sholom Rubashkin to pay $18.5 million to First Bank Business Capital, the plant’s largest lender; $8.3 million to MB Financial Bank, another lender; and $3,800 to Waverly Sales Inc. in a sweeping financial fraud to defraud banks
From Fox Business News | Senior executives at major Wall Street banks say they doubt that community lender ShoreBank, despite its ties to the Obama White House, will be able to survive a government takeover and eventual liquidation that a bailout was designed to prevent. Just a few weeks ago, the officials thought they had contributed enough money to bail out the bank.
Chicago’s two biggest banks have diverging strategies on how to treat customers who overdraw their accounts using ATM and debit cards.
Starting July 1 for new customers and Aug. 15 for existing ones, banks need a consumer’s approval to process everyday debit and ATM card transactions that exceed the account balance. In the past, banks often have covered overdrafts, but socked the account holder with a $20 or $30 fee. Get the full story »
U.S. regulators revised down the estimated cost of cleaning up the hundreds of bank failures Tuesday, saying the industry is seeing better earnings and a greater ability to raise capital. The staff of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said it now believes bank failures will cost the industry-backed insurance fund $60 billion between 2010 and 2014. Previously, the FDIC had estimated a cost of $60 billion over 2010 to 2013.
House and Senate lawmakers have tentatively agreed on how to regulate fees that banks charge merchants who accept payment with debit cards. Get the full story »
FDIC Deputy Director Robert W. Mooney tells a conference of banking risk managers that U.S. consumers need federal protection from a financial services industry that has exposed them to inappropriate mortgages, credit cards and other practices.
The bailout of Chicago-based ShoreBank has hit a serious snag as the Federal Reserve and Treasury drag their feet on whether to provide funding to the ailing South Side lender, sources close to the situation say.
Last month ShoreBank lined up commitments from private sources, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, General Electric and Chase, for a capital infusion of about $135 million. That private money was to have made ShoreBank eligible for about $75 million in government funds from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. The bank has needed to raise about $200 million to stave off possible seizure. Get the full story »
A survey of bank executives conducted by accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton shows that the majority of them think the worst for U.S. economy is over. Around 45 percent of them said they expect improvement in the next six months, a sharp improvement from the 24 percent that answered yes to that question six months ago.
